Nightfox
by WolfBlade117
Summary: Jay let me redo his story since he doesn't want to anymore, so I'll try this out.
1. Chapter 1

Basically, the story is, I PM Jay and ask if I can continue his story, with a few, uh... changes. He says yes.

Hooray!

Changes for the first three chapters are going to be somewhat major, and then I'll see how I get from there.

* * *

_"I was... I_ am_ scared."_

_"I am too."_

* * *

The first thing that Cole MacGrath realized was that his head hurt like a _bitch._ The second was that he wasn't in New Marais._  
_

Not even close.

He was lying on the ground, in the middle of a huge forest, and was basically lost, in every sense of the word.

"What the hell?" The last thing he remembered was kicking the crap out of the Beast, then talking to Kuo, and then activating the RFI.

"I should be dead." The RFI, or Ray Field Inhibitor, was a device designed by Dr. Wolfe, designed to get rid of all traces of the Ray Sphere radiation. It had the added benefit of destroying the plague that was killing millions, and the unintended consequence of killing all Conduits, active or not.

He had turned on the RFI and had chosen to save humanity, at the cost of thousands of potential and active Conduits, including himself and the Beast. He remembered the strength he had gained after he had touched the fully charged RFI. He looked down at himself in surprise to find that energy still there, in the form of dozens of tiny sparks running across his body. He didn't feel the RFI anywhere near, so he guessed it was safe to assume that the device had changed him, made him more powerful. He didn't feel like there was any limit to his energy, like he could literally keep going forever.

However, that could be a problem. If people saw someone sparking like he was, they might be a little freaked, so he calmed himself down and forced the energy back into his body.

He felt the familiar handle of his Amp that was still attached to his sling-pack, and swung it experimentally. Still in working condition. Speaking of the sling-pack, he pulled it off and unzipped it. In it was his old couriers jacket from Empire City. He moved that aside, and his jaw dropped.

In the sling-pack, four Blast Cores glowed. He had no idea how he'd gotten _four_ Blast Cores, but he decided not to use them yet. Might draw unwanted attention, so he put them back and zipped up the pack, pulling it over his shoulder.

Cole sent out a Radar Pulse to determine if there were any electric sources anywhere near. A huge bunch of them showed up on his radar, a little to the southwest.

"Alright, I should probably head in that direction... and talking to myself isn't getting me anywhere." With that thought, he set off at a brisk pace of about twenty miles an hour towards the town.

All the while, the Electric Man pondered how he was still alive. By all rights, he should be dead, seeing as how he had used the RFI, a device that was _supposed_ to kill all Conduits. He was gripped with a bit of dread as he realized that it might not have worked. He had defeated the Beast, but the plague might still be spreading, or Conduits might be activating, or the Beast might even be still alive.

He was snapped out of his reverie as he neared the town, and realized that it wasn't just a town... it was full blown city. Twenty feet high walls surrounded it, something that he might not be able to scale easily.

Cole instead looked at the group of people guarding the front gates and raised an eyebrow. They were dressed in combat pants, sandals, and jackets, and all of them had headbands on their heads.

"Halt!" one shouted. "Who goes there? State your business!" For a second, he fumbled for an answer.

"Um... sorry, I'm kinda lost..." he said somewhat sheepishly, which actually wasn't a lie. The guards looked at him, then each other.

"Alright, I suppose you can come in, but would you be willing to surrender that... whatever-it-is on your back?"

"No. This is the one thing left of my friend who I lost a little while ago. I'm not letting it go," he said, a bit more forcefully. They looked at him for a second, then one with black hair and black eyes spoke up.

"Give it to us. You have no right to refuse us! We are ninja, and you are a lowly civilian. Give it to us, or we will force you to hand it over!"

"Belay that, Uchiha," said another one. "You are out of line." The dark haired one looked like he was about to say something else, but the man gave him a cold stare.

"It is in his possession. He can keep it if he chooses." The Uchiha guy gave Cole a dirty look, as if it were his fault that he'd gotten scolded. He turned away, and the Conduit saw a red and white design on his back that looked like a fan.

"Okay, now that thats out of the way, welcome to Konoha, the Hidden Leaf Village."

"Thanks, I guess." With that, Cole walked forward through the gates.

He looked around, and saw dozens of tall buildings that could be easily scaled, and power lines going every which way. He honestly had no idea what he was going to do here.

The Conduit was snapped out of his reverie by the sound of a woman screaming. He looked towards an alleyway, where three men were holding a woman with purple hair in a trench coat against a wall. His eyes narrowed, and he started towards them.

The three men had pushed her against the wall violently, and were giving her uncomfortable looks.

"Let go of me!" she shouted, but they simply smiled and leered.

"Why should we, snake whore? Your a traitor to our village, and need to be punished!"

"I'm not a traitor," she growled. They all just grinned, and one of them reached for her jacket.

Then Cole punched him in the face.

The guy flew twelve feet straight into the wall of the alley, and for a second no one moved.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked the two remaining men who were looking at him fearfully.

"N-nothing!"

"Then scram." They didn't need to be told twice, and ran out of the alley. "Idjits," he scowled under his breath. He turned to the woman, who was looking at him in wonder.

"You okay?" he asked. She nodded dumbly, and he saw that she was pretty. _Really_ pretty. "What's your name?"

"A-Anko Mitarashi. What's yours?"

"Cole MacGrath."

"Thanks for saving me."

"No problem. It's what I do." She smiled.

"Do you need anyone to walk you home?" he asked, and she blushed lightly.

"Sure."

They took off together, and started talking about likes, dislikes, hobbies, and so on. He had questions about the structure of the village, so she explained how the ninja system worked, and talked with some distaste about the civilian council.

"They're nothing but a bunch of old, rich, corrupt and perverted fools! I swear, one of them even offered me money to have sex with him! As if!" He grinned.

"By the way, how did you do that earlier?" she asked, and he looked at her, confused.

"You hit the guy so hard it made a crater in the wall. It didn't even look like you were trying!"

"Well... I wasn't, really..." she gaped at him, amazed.

"How are you that strong? I know a lot of jonin that aren't as strong as you are!"

"I'm not exactly normal, per se..."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm what's called a Conduit. I basically have superpowers." He held up a hand and threw an Alpha bolt to demonstrate. She raised an eyebrow.

"Thats not exactly special. A lot of ninja can do that with Chakra."

"What's Chakra?" This got her attention.

"You don't know what that is? How can you do things like that without it?"

"Well..." he said, and went on to explain the Ray Sphere and all the powers he had obtained, all the way up to his fight with the Beast. She stood still throughout the entire thing, shocked (no pun intended).

"That's... amazing! With that kind of power, you could easily surpass almost any ninja in this village!" She took his hand. "Can I take you to the Hokage? He needs to hear this."

"Of course. I was planning to go to him anyway. Might be a little peeved if he finds out there's a renegade Electric Man running around the village..." She laughed at that, and they took off towards the Hokage tower.

But before they had even gotten halfway, they heard shouts and a shrill cry of pain. Anko's eyes widened.

"Oh no... Naruto!"

"Who's Naruto?" She looked at him fearfully.

"No time, we have to go!" She took off along the rooftops, and he followed.

They arrived in an alleyway to find dozens of villagers, carrying everything from pitchforks to knives, huddled around a small, limp blond boy, who was covered in bruises and stab wounds.

"We're going to kill you, demon! You'll pay for everything you took from us!" yelled one of them, and approached the boy with a huge axe.

Before he could swing it, Cole dropped down right in front of the man and socked him in the jaw, throwing him backwards into another group of villagers. They looked up at the tall, very angry man in odd clothes, and someone yelled at him.

"What are you doing? Why are you defending the demon brat?" Cole looked backwards at the little boy coughing weakly as blood dripped from his body. Anko dropped down next to him and started using some medical jutsu on his wounds.

"I don't see any demon brat. All I see is a bunch of drunk people trying to kill a little boy." He turned back to said boy. "Anko, keep him alive. I can heal him, but I need to deal with these fools first." She nodded slowly, and kept on working.

A guy, a ninja by the looks of him, rushed forward with a kunai in hand, intent on ending the boy's life. Before he could get close, Cole swung out an arm and clotheslined him hard. The chunin fell on the ground, gasping and holding his neck, his windpipe crushed. Cole bent down and used Arc Restraint on him. Solid cuffs of electricity arced around the ninja's arms and legs, holding him in place.

The rest of the villagers looked on fearfully as the stranger turned to them, his eyes glowing in anger. Then they realized that his eyes were _literally_ glowing a bright, electric blue.

He raised both hands, and sent a blast of electricity that slammed against the remainder of the villagers and sent them all flying out of the alley.

Before he could turn back, a trio of masked people landed in front of him. He raised his fists and prepared to fight, but the one it the dog mask forestalled him.

"Wait, we don't want to fight. We got here as fast as we could. We were about to step in, but you didn't need any help."

"Thanks, I guess. Now move over, I need to get to the kid." Cole stepped around the ANBU agents and kneeled next to the little kid, who was growing pale. Anko had managed to close most of the wounds up pretty well, but the dozens of huge bruises suggested that the inside needed treatment, not the outside.

"He's losing blood too fast. I think he's bleeding internally," the kunoichi said, heartbroken. Cole put a hand on her shoulder.

"Anko, back away. I'm going to try something." She looked up at him tearfully.

"Can you heal him?"

"Yes," he said. "I promise that he'll be okay."

She pulled away and stood next to the ANBU agents, who looked at the stranger warily.

Cole looked down at the boy, who was still coughing up blood.

"Hold on, kid," he whispered, and put both hands on Naruto's chest. Arcs of electricity danced along his fingers, and sent them into the boy's body.

For a second, he jerked wildly, but then settled down. Cole looked down to see that the cuts were healing a lot faster than normal, and raised an eyebrow. That was unusual.

And he looked, amazed, as electricity started flicking around all over the kid's body. He backed away slowly, as they continued to dance around. Finally, Naruto opened his eyes, and looked at them groggily.

"What happened?" he asked, unaware of the electricity flowing on his body. Cole looked at him, stunned, and the others looked at both of them.

"Cole? What's the matter?" Anko asked, looking at Naruto's body.

"He's... he's a Conduit. I have no idea how thats possible!"

"What do you mean?"

"As far as I know, there is nothing like the Ray Sphere in this world. So how in the world could he be an active Conduit?"

"Maybe it was you," said the man in the dog mask, who had pulled down his hood to reveal silver hair sticking up at a gravity-defying angle.

"What do you mean, Inu?" Anko asked.

"Well, maybe since your a Conduit... whatever that is... yourself, so maybe your electrical energy could have jumpstarted his... something or other." Everyone gave him a deadpan look.

"You thought you sounded so smart when you started that sentence, didn't you?" Anko asked.

"Yeah, kinda."

"Still, it might be true," Cole mused, deep in thought. "I think we should explain this to the Hokage."

"Um, Cole? Anko?" Naruto spoke up, and they looked at him questioningly. "Why am I healing so quick?" They looked at his body to see the dozens of remaining cuts closing up in seconds.

"Part of that was me, kid. But your cuts are healing unusually fast, especially for a child. I think that you absorbed some of my electrical energy, which might be another part of it. However, it usually takes at least a couple of days for cuts to heal, even with powers like ours. So there's something else..."

"As fascinating as this is," Inu stated. "We should probably report Hokage about what's happened here. I think it's time that Naruto learned about his parents, and his... tenant."

"Are you sure? Do you think that now is the right time?" Anko asked, surprised.

"The kid is a lot smarter than he looks. He'll figure it out eventually, and I'd rather it be revealed to him now."

Anko sighed, and held out a hand to the boy, who came forward uncertainly and took her hand.

"Naruto, we're going to tell you something pretty important soon. Try not to freak out, okay?"

"I'll do my best," he said, smiling.

* * *

A few minutes later, they stood in the Hokage's office, the ANBU agent giving the old man a report on what had happened. The leader of Konoha listened with interest as Inu detailed to him some of Cole's abilities, as well as the surprising appearance of Naruto's own powers. Afterwards, Cole was called forth to tell his story, which took almost ten minutes.

At then end of the odd story, the Hokage frowned slightly.

"Naruto, could you come over here? I have something important to tell you." Naruto approached the desk.

"What is it, jiji?"

"Well... do you know about the Kyuubi?"

"Nine Tailed Fox? Yeah. Wasn't he killed by the Yondaime twelve years ago?"

"That story isn't exactly accurate. Yes, the Fourth fought against him, but there wasn't a way to kill him. So instead, he had to find a vessel to hold the demon's power in check. He had to find a baby... his own son."

Naruto looked down for a second, and then spoke softly.

"It was me, wasn't it?" The Hokage looked at him, surprised. He hadn't expected him to grasp the situation so quickly.

"Yes it was." Naruto looked up at the Third Hokage with a look of hurt on his face.

"Jiji, why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't have a choice, Naruto-"

"Yes you did. You could have told me why I've been hated, chased, beaten and nearly killed since I was born. You didn't trust me." Sarutobi looked at him sadly.

"I'm sorry, Naruto. I just had no idea how you'd react to the news." Naruto looked up at him and smiled.

"Well, whatever. As long as I know now, I suppose I'm okay. Am I really Lord Fourth's son? Cool!" All the people in the room couldn't help but smile. For a second, Naruto was all angry and sad, and the next second, he was dancing around the room, talking about how awesome it was to be the Fourth Hokage's son. Then he stopped and looked thoughtful.

"Jiji, is that why I haven't been adopted? I mean, shouldn't a lot of shinobi know about seals?"

"Yes, Naruto, they do. Unfortunately, on the night of the Kyuubi attack, Danzo and the civilian council made a law stating that no ninja can adopt you. Civilians can, but he made sure that no one would want to."

"I"m starting to dislike this 'Danzo' guy," Cole spoke up, they all agreed. "Why don't I adopt the kid?"

For a second, absolute silence reigned in the room.

"Really, Cole? Would you be willing to do that?" Anko asked, and the Electric Man nodded emphatically.

"Of course. I am the only one who can teach him to use his powers, so living with him would be ideal. I technically am a civilian, so I can do it. The only problem would be finding a place where we could train in secret..."

"I believe I can help with that," Sarutobi stated. "I can give you the Namikaze estate, where Lord Fourth lived. It has ample training rooms and plenty of space, so it'll probably be ideal. It is Naruto's birthright anyway, so he can have it if he chooses." Cole nodded.

"Sounds good to me. But of course, it's still all up to Naruto." They all turned to look at the blond boy who was still a little bit in shock. Then he grinned foxily.

"Sounds good to me too." Cole looked at him and smiled.

"But beware, kid, my training regimen will be intense and arduous. It will take everything you've got just to keep up!"

"Then I'll gladly give it my all," Naruto stated determinedly. The Demon of Empire City grinned.

"Oh man, we are definitely going to get along well."

Sarutobi got Cole's attention, and motioned for him to follow. Once they were alone, the Hokage started talking.

"I will not be putting Naruto in the shinobi Academy. I think that it's best that he learns to control his powers first. I can assign a tutor to him to see that he learns about basic ninja jutsu."

"Okay, but what then?"

"The school itself lasts for three years, so I will have him enter when the rest of the current beginner students graduate."

"That should make them angry. I have a good idea about something he could do while he's waiting. We'll figure it out." The elderly man nodded, and they strode back to the center of the room.

"Alright. And just so that the civilian council doesn't find out and try to make Naruto's life miserable, no one outside of this immediate group will be notified of MacGrath's decision. Anko, you will be the boy's tutor for basic ninja skills. Make sure to teach him the Shadow Clone Jutsu for fast learning. Dismissed."

They all nodded and turned to leave. On the way out the door, Cole was stopped by the ANBU agent.

"Take care of him, all right?" The Electric Man knew that he was talking about Naruto.

"Of course, Inu."

"My name is Kakashi. Kakashi Hatake," he said, pulling off is mask to reveal another one that covered the bottom part of his face. A straight scar slid down a closed left eye. Cole took one look at his face, and nodded. They shook hands, and took off in different directions.

Naruto, for his part, was absolutely ecstatic. He was going to his Dad's house, he'd just learned that he had superpowers, and a nice guy had adopted him and promised to teach him!

"Hey, Cole? What are we gonna start with?" he asked the man who was ahead of him by a few feet. Cole looked back at the little kid who looked totally excited.

"First, we're going to get you started on parkour and using basic powers."

"Parkour?" Naruto asked, and he and Anko looked at him, confused. Cole looked back at them, disbelieving.

"Parkour is a necessity, kid. Have you never heard of it before? It is, quite basically, the art of getting from point A to point B in the most effective fashion. How will you get away from enemies if you can't run or climb?" The blond nodded in understanding.

"If that's what your talking about, I think I have some experience with that from running away from mobs and people who were chasing me for stealing." The Conduit raised an eyebrow.

"You stole stuff?"

"Yep. I had no other choice. First time it happened, I was starving, and I saw this guy running an apple cart and chomping on a couple. I came forward and asked him for some. I even had money, but he kicked me in the chest and told me to stay away. So I ran around the other side and pocketed a couple. Totally didn't notice me, until some boy with dark hair and a weird circle-ish design on his chest saw me. I had to run." He looked down sadly, and Cole knew that he was reliving a pretty bad part of his life. Then he remembered something, and pulled out a pen and paper.

"Is this what the circle-ish design looked like?" he asked, and held up a drawing of a crest he had seen when he had entered the village.

"Yeah, that's it. Why?" Cole's eyes darkened.

"That's the crest of the Uchiha clan. If their attitude is anything to go by, they don't like too many outsiders."

"The Uchiha's? They're the police force of the entire village. They're responsible for civilian crimes, and a lot of people look up to them."

"Can't see why," Cole said, frowning, as Naruto smiled. "Anyway, I'm getting you started on your first lesson."

"Right now?"

"Right now."

"What is it?" The Electric man looked at him and grinned.

"Try to keep up."

* * *

So... yeah. Remember, I'm just doing mostly minor changes, so don't expect much until chapter 4.


	2. Chapter 2

Second chapter. Here ya go.

* * *

**Three years later...**

"COLE! NARUTO! WHERE ARE YOU?" Anko yelled into the empty house. She looked around dozens of rooms and scowled. She ran up the stairs and found them on sitting cross-legged on top of the roof, both of their right hand's clasped together. Small arcs of electricity danced along their bodies, and they both had frowns of concentration on their faces.

She sighed. They were image-training again.

Using their electric powers, and channeling them into each other, allowed them to have a full blown fight... in their minds. They could create a scene, add elements that they needed, and then used the area to fight. It had all the seriousness and helpfulness of training, without the physical side affects of using so much power. Their perception of time was slowed down to such that a minute outside was an hour outside. Usually the fights only lasted for a few minutes.

She waited for another thirty seconds, and then they both gasped and opened their eyes. Naruto layed back and leaned on his elbows, panting with exertion but smiling anyway. Cole looked a bit less tired, but was nevertheless impressed.

"Nice job, kid. You've really improved with this!" The blond kid looked up at him and scowled slightly, but a light of amusement shone in his eyes.

"It ain't fair that you have infinite energy! You can just keep on lobbing rockets at me with no cost."

"Yeah, but you've gotten good at getting past that. Besides, I wasn't lobbing too many..."

"You call over 100 rockets 'not too many'?"

"Hey, you managed to almost take me down, even with my advantages! That's no mean achievement." Naruto sighed, and then noticed the purple haired kunoichi looking at both of them with annoyance.

"What's up, Anko?"

"Have you really forgotten? Today is the day you graduate, baka!" Naruto's eyes widened, and he ran towards his room to change.

"Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!" he yelled. They both looked after him in amusement. Then Cole pulled Anko towards him and hugged her tightly. She giggled, and kissed him.

"He's grown up a lot, hasn't he?" Cole asked, and Anko nodded. They both regarded the blond kid as a surrogate little brother, an attitude that he shared with them. He had matured at a pace that could almost be considered unnatural for a boy his age. At twelve years old, he was 6 feet tall, broad in the shoulders and chest, and very muscular. But it wasn't always that way.

_Three years ago..._

_Naruto sat, panting, on the floor of the Namikaze compound. He'd just ran halfway across the village, trying to keep up with Cole. Along the way, the elder Conduit had shown him how to grind on the electric wires around village, how to sprint and jump from one building to the next, and how to use his electricity to keep him going. Still, the exertion had taken it's toll._

_"Just... give me a sec..." he panted to Cole, who looked at him, concerned._

_"Damn, kid, you don't look so good," he said. Anko jumped through the window, panting as well. __She noticed both Cole and Naruto were already there, and looked at the little kid with confusion. __Naruto was thin and malnourished, but she'd always remembered that he'd been lively and full of energy. In fact, ever since a few weeks ago, whenever she'd seen him, he'd seemed much more exhausted than normal._

_"You do realize that that thing you're wearing is terrible for exercise, right?" she asked, and he looked up at her warily._

_"I-I'd rather not take it off," he stuttered, and Cole and Anko both raised an eyebrow._

_"Why not?" she asked, and he just looked down at the ground, not meeting their eyes. Then he slowly pulled down the zipper of the jumpsuit, letting them see._

_Anko gasped and Cole growled with anger as the boy's body was revealed._

_The entire area around his chest, stomach and back was an enormous mass of scars, crisscrossing across each other in random lines. There were burns, stab wounds, lacerations, whip marks, brandings, and a dozen other types of torture scars._

_"What the hell is this?" Cole growled, and he felt himself literally sparking with anger. Anko felt tears gather in the corner of her eyes as she stared down the blond's body._

_"Where did you get those?" she asked, almost afraid of the answer._

_"...I don't know."_

_"What do you mean, you don't know?" Cole asked angrily. He was going to _murder_ whoever did this._

_"I mean, I seriously have no idea. A few weeks ago, I just woke up in an alley, and I have no idea of how I got there. And that's not even the worst part."_

_"What could be worse?" Cole asked, growing steadily angrier._

_"I can't remember the last three years of my life." Anko stared at him in confusion._

_"But I've seen you around the village. You did seem distant, whenever anyone tried to talk to you, you would just ignore them and leave. How can you not remember all that?"_

_"I don't know. I just remember waking up then picking up a newspaper, and somehow being three years in the future," he said, looking dejected. Then Anko had a thought._

___"Naruto, could you focus your chakra for me?" she asked, and they both looked at her, surprised._

_"Okay," he said, and put his hands together. He concentrated for a second, and then a large black seal appeared on his stomach._

_"That's the fox's seal?" Cole asked, and Anko nodded. However, that wasn't what she was concerned about._

_Dozens of seals began appearing all over his body, smaller than the original one. She gasped slightly, and Cole's eyes narrowed._

_"I'm guessing those aren't normal?" he asked, and she shook her head, shocked. The seals were for body and chakra repression. This many meant that not only was Naruto being sabotaged, but it was on a massive scale. With all of them overlaping and affecting his body, there was no telling how he would develop over the coming years. She needed to get rid of them, now._

_"Naruto, can you come over here? I need to do something that might hurt. Cole, I need your help too."_

_"Coming."_

_And so, one by one, she started destroying the seals on his body. The process went unusually fast, and she thanked the blond's tenant privately. Then she saw another seal, this one on his back, but it was much, much bigger and more complicated then the others. While Naruto was recovering, she made a motion for the elder Conduit to follow her._

_"What is it?" he asked, slightly worried by the expression on her face. She looked terrified._

_"Cole... that massive seal on his back..." she started, but didn't trust herself to speak._

_"What? Can you destroy it?"_

_"Y-yes... but I'm not sure that we want to." _

_"Why not?"_

_"This seal is repressing the three years," she said in a hollow voice. "That means that someone doesn't us to find out what happened." They both looked over at Naruto, who was still panting in exertion from the process. _

_"I want to do it," the blond said._

_"Kid, I don't think it's a good idea-"_

_"Of course it isn't a good idea, but... I still want to," he said. "I want to know why I can't remember anything from when I was six until a few months ago__."_

_Cole and Anko both examined him for a little while, and seeing the determination in his eyes, agreed. They approached him again, and Anko laid him on his stomach._

_"Naruto, if you're sure about this, then you have to know the risks. Once I start undoing this seal, I can't stop. You have to endure it until I'm done." Turning to the elder Conduit, she spoke again. "Cole, you have to hold him down if he gets too jumpy." They both nodded._

_"How long will it take?" Naruto asked._

_"No longer than three minutes. But in those three minutes, you might be reliving three years of pain."_

_"I've endured a lot of things, Anko. I think I'll be okay._

_And so she began._

_At first, it seemed like Naruto was alright, aside from the occasional groan, but, thirty seconds into the work, he began to thrash and scream in pain. Cole had to lean on him to keep him down._

_Inside his mind, Naruto remembered having the skin on his back whipped off by a pink-haired man with a crazed grin on his face. He remembered a group of black haired men grinning as they broke both of his arms. He remembered a group of ANBU with the kanji for 'ROOT' on their masks, who stabbed him dozens of times to 'keep the demon loyal to Danzo-sama'. _

_How that was supposed to keep him loyal, he had no idea. _

_All this was happening within the span of a few milliseconds, and every second, it got worse._

_But then, in the middle of the second minute, was when it began to start._

_The blond's screams increased in volume until he was roaring in pain. All across Konoha, people shuddered at the inhuman sounds._

_Cole struggled to keep Naruto still for Anko to work, but the blond was almost throwing him off. The elder Conduit managed to keep Naruto from thrashing, and f__inally, Anko was done. By then, Naruto was gasping with fear and pain, and he immediately hugged Anko tightly, sobbing into her trench coat. The two stayed with the little boy for the entire night, and then he finally calmed down enough to go to his room and sleep off the effects of what he had endured._

_ He took a few days to recover. When he came out, both of them were stunned to see that he had grown at least three inches while he had been asleep._

_"How are you doing?" Cole asked. Naruto looked up at him with bloodshot eyes and gave him a tired smile._

_"I think I'll be okay. And right now, I want to train."_

_"If you think you're ready, then we can start." Cole said, a small smile on his face._

_End Flashback_

Since then, Naruto had not only learned almost all of his powers, he was also highly skilled in weapons, jutsu and martial arts. Cole had explained to him about Blast Cores and how Naruto could use them, and promised to give them to him when he was mature enough. But neither he nor Anko ever asked about what happened to him during the last part of the three years. Naruto had shared some parts of the first three years, which made them both want to murder some civilian council members, but he never went farther than that.

The blond ran up, dressed in his usual outfit, which consisted of rubber shoes, jeans with a white Union Jack on both legs, a white t-shirt with blue sleeves, blue gloves, and a blue cap. A blue fox design was on the front of his shirt. (Think Cole's outfit with Sly's hat, mask and gloves). His sling pack looked like Cole's, only instead of an Amp, there was a silver Cane on the back. (Sly Cane except silver)

"Okay, I'm off!" he said cheerfully.

"You'll do great," Anko said, and hugged him tightly.

"Well of course he will. I'm the one who trained him, remember?" Cole stated with a bashful grin.

"Cole!" Anko chided. "Naruto's the one who's been putting so much dedication and work into this."

"True. I'll have a present waiting for you when you graduate," Cole said, smiling. He put a hand on Naruto's head and ruffled his hair. "We're both proud of you, kid." Naruto blushed, totally embarassed.

"Okay, okay, I get it," he said. He wrapped the black mask around his eyes, and jogged off.

"I'm proud of how he's helping people with his powers." Cole said, still smiling.

"Finally, your prank is coming to fruition," Anko stated.

_Flashback_

_Naruto had just learned the Henge jutsu, and Cole had a brilliant idea._

_"Naruto, Anko, come here for a second. I think you're gonna like what I have in mind.__"_

_The both walked over and sat down next to him._

_"Naruto, you know how to do a henge, right?"_

_"Yeah, why?"_

_"Transform into a short, chubby version of you wearing the most hideous outfit you can think of." Naruto raised an eyebrow, but stood up and made the handsigns for the Henge jutsu._

_A poof of smoke later, and a smaller Naruto wearing a hideous orange and blue outfit with green goggles grinned back at them. Another oddity was the lack of the three whisker marks on each cheek._

_"So... what do I do now?" Cole gained a sadistic grin._

_"Your gonna start pranking people."_

_"Wha?"_

_"Prank people. Make 'em feel miserable for screwing up your life so much." Naruto nodded, but was still confused._

_"Sounds good to me, but whats the point?" Cole's grin widened._

_"During the day, you'll be pranking people, but at night, you'll be helping them instead. You'll create two seperate personalities. One will become infamous, the other will become a hero. But whatever happens, you can't let people know that your pranking side and your heroic side are the same people."_

_As Cole was describing this, Naruto's and Anko's grins got wider and wider._

_"And when people find out that they're one and the same..." Naruto said, smiling maniacally. "Oh, this is gonna be _great!_ But I'll need an alias for my hero self. How about... the Nightfox?"_

End Flashback

"I think that people are gonna be pretty upset when they find out about my prank."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, their prankster and their hero are the same person, so..."

"It'll be funny watching everyone's reactions."

"Wanna go get some dango?"

"Yay! Dango!"

**5 minutes later**

Naruto sprinted across the rooftops, with his usual henge of the short, chubby kid wearing the hideous orange outfit on.

He grinned as he sped towards the academy. He was absolutely ecstatic about what he was about to do, and though he had no idea who his team was going to be, he couldn't wait to let out his secret to the world.

He glanced at the clock tower to his right, and cursed. He was late.

Then he heard a scream.

He stopped in an instant, and looked down at the street below. Three dark-haired men were attacking a single pink haired girl, who was yelling at them to stop.

He cursed as he recognized Sakura, one of the only people in the entire academy who didn't hate his infamous side's guts. Rather, she seemed mildly curious as to why the entire civilian population went out of it's way to make his life miserable. As his hero side, he'd already saved her three times. Each time, she seemed more and more scared and vulnerable.

He cursed once more as he recognized the fan design on the backs of the attackers. Uchihas again.

The clan police claimed to be responsible for all crimes in the city. That was not true. They were only responsible for _most_ crimes in the city.

Around sixty percent of the crimes he had stopped had been orchestrated by the Uchiha clan. It was everything from rapes to robberies. High class officials who protested against them had been silenced, and the other shinobi clan heads were too weak to stop them.

Naruto growled. The Uchihas were a plague that needed to be removed.

But for a start, he could stop this attack.

He jumped down into the alleyway opposite the attack, and turned off the henge. He pulled the cap low over his eyes, and swung the cane experimentally.

Running forward towards the attackers, he jumped and slammed both feet into the back of the nearest Uchiha, who flew forward and knocked both of the others away from the pink haired academy student.

Landing lightly in a crouch, he raised the cane and channeled electricity into it. His eyes glowed a deep, electric blue, another safety measure to protect his identity.

He walked forward and looked at Sakura, concerned.

"You okay?" She nodded dumbly back. He looked back at the sprawled heap of Uchiha, and sighed. He walked forward and used Arc Restraint on all three of them.

One of them who was still conscious looked up at him and cursed.

"What gives you the right to stop us who travel with the Uchiha clan's authority?"

"A better right than you have to misuse that authority," he retorted, and approached the shivering girl.

"Do you need me to take you anywhere?" he asked softly.

"Y-yeah... can you walk me to the Shinobi academy?"

"Of course."

They took off together towards the tall building and arrived in less than five minutes. They stood outside for a second, and she suddenly pulled him into a hug. He smiled softly, and hugged her back.

"It's okay. You're safe," he whispered into her ear, but she shook her head.

"But I'm not! That's the point! I'll never be safe as long as the Uchiha's are still here."

"That's not true. As long as you believe in yourself, you'll do fine. Besides, I'll be there to watch over you."

"How?" she asked. "You have so many other people to save, you can't be close to me all the time!" He smiled softly.

"I'm much closer than you think." She pulled away slightly, and looked at him with a confused look.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked, and he shook his head.

"You'll find out today. But for now... just keep an open mind." With that, he sped off, leaving her bewildered.

**10 minutes later**

Naruto, wearing his usual henge, walked into the massive classroom, where dozens of students were laughing and playing around, waiting for the class to start.

They all stopped and stared at him as he entered. They all continued watching as he walked around to the back of the class and sat down next to Sakura, who was staring at him in surprise.

"Naruto?" she asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Hopefully, graduating," he said, and she grew even more confused.

"But you've never been a student here! How could you have possibly been-" He put a finger to her lips to stop her tirade, and she froze at the contact.

"Like I said before, you'll find out." She looked at him, bewildered.

"Hey dobe! What are you doing here?" Without even turning around, he knew who it was, and he groaned.

"What do you want, Sasuke?" he asked. Sasuke Uchiha, one of the most arrogant, rude, and dangerous of the Uchiha's, stood behind him, two of his flunkies on either side. The one on the right was Akihiko Uchiha, and he was anything but what his name meant. Huge, tough, and absolutely clueless, he was basically a giant piece of muscle. On Sasuke's left was Genji Uchiha, who was smart, but utterly useless in every other regard. He was thinner than a stick and had a bad case of acne.

They stood over him, grinning all the while.

"I wanna know why a deadlast loser like you is here. This is only for people who deserve to graduate."

"And you are so deserving? Can't see why," he replied. Sasuke frowned at this. He wasn't used to this sort of defiance from the blond loser. Normally, he would just run away, but now he was acting different. Instead, he focused on the other occupant of the desk, and smiled.

"Hey there, Sakura. Why are you hanging around with this loser when you can be with a real man instead?" he asked. She turned away, struggling to ignore him. This enraged the dark-haired boy, and he brought back a fist to throw at her face.

A hand reached out and caught his wrist, and he turned to see Naruto, who looked at him, anger flashing in his eyes.

"That's enough," he said, and everyone stopped to look at him in surprise. Sasuke smirked, and brought back his other fist instead.

"Throw that punch and I'll break your wrist," Naruto growled, and the pressure on his hand increased. The Uchiha prodigy gasped with pain as he felt the bones in his hand threatening to cave in. He fell to his knees, cradling his arm and everyone looked at the orange ninja in shock. Naruto crouched down and leaned in until he was close to Sasuke's face.

"If you ever threaten one of my friends again, I'm gonna tear off your head." Kiba, due to his enhanced hearing, was the only one who heard the threat besides Sasuke himself, and shivered slightly. He looked down at Akamaru, who was hiding in his shirt, whimpering.

"What is it, boy?" he asked, and Akamaru shook his head. The nin-dog could feel the amount of chakra radiating off of the orange clad ninja, and something about it wasn't normal.

Naruto stood up and took his place again, leaving the two flunkies to pick up their leader and move him away. Sakura stared at him in shock. She'd never seen Naruto take such a stance before. In fact, the only one she'd ever seen defending her like that was the Nightfox himself.

The entire class quieted down as Iruka and Mizuki, the two academy instructors, entered the room.

"Alright class, today we're having the final exam for you to become Genin. The exam will consist of a written exam, and then three seperate jutsu exams. Good luck to you all."

"Iruka, what's the dobe doing here? He can't graduate, he was never even in our class!" Sasuke complained, and his flunkies and fan-girls shouted out their agreements to his statement. Iruka gave him a cold look.

"Naruto has been given special permission to graduate along with this years students. I have the orders right here. If you feel like arguing with the Hokage, Sasuke, then by all means, be my guest." They fell silent after that, and then Mizuki started handing out test papers. Naruto's eyes narrowed as he gave the Uchiha trio their exams, pre-written answers and all. He pretended not to be interested as Mizuki handed him his own paper, but he looked down at the test to see that it was Jonin level. He expected that Mizuki thought that he wouldn't have noticed the difference, given his reputation as a hyperactive prankster. He frowned, and then the frown turned into a dark grin. He'd show everyone that messing with him was a bad idea.

He raised a hand, and then slammed it down onto the table. Everyone, including Shikamaru, jerked awake at the sudden and violent noise. Before the teachers could ask him what he was doing, he walked forward and handed Iruka his test paper.

Iruka took it questoningly. He looked down, and his eyes widened, the narrowed. The scarred instructor looked over at Mizuki darkly, who was starting to sweat.

"What is the meaning of this?" he asked, and held up Naruto's test.

"W-what do you mean?" Mizuki stammered.

"I mean," Iruka stated, slowly and deliberately. "Why is this test a Jonin level test?" The class gasped.

"That's not it, sensei," Naruto said, still looking at Mizuki. "You might want to check out the Uchiha's tests, too." Iruka looked at the three dark haired boys, who were sweating just as much as Mizuki.

"Give me your tests," he growled.

"Why should we?" Sasuke asked arrogantly. "We haven't done anything wrong."

"Taking a test with the answers already written out is considered military sabotage, Sasuke. You could be expelled for doing it," the blond ninja said calmly. Everyone gasped, and then people in the back started looking at the Uchiha's tests.

"They're already filled out!" shouted Chouji, a plump boy with the kanji for 'eat' on his shirt. People all around the room were looking at the dark haired boys with anger, including their fan-girls, who were mostly shocked. Iruka looked back at Mizuki, who was now gibbering with fright.

"Care to explain, Mizuki?"

"So what? It's not like they would have failed anyway. And the demon brat hasn't put in an ounce of work ever! He doesn't deserve to be made into a ninja! All he does is do terrible pranks!"

They were interrupted by the sound of laughing. Everyone looked at Naruto, who was holding his sides and howling with pure amusement. Finally he calmed down, and wiped the moisture from his eyes.

"Oh, that's funny," he said, and then his eyes turned stone cold. "You have no idea what I've actually been doing for this village. But I think I'll show you."

Everyone in the room, Mizuki included, shivered. They had never heard that level of coldness from Naruto before. Iruka looked at the blond boy and wondered what had changed in him.

"Ha! Where's your proof, brat? You have never helped this village before. All you've ever done is make people annoyed with your pranks," Mizuki said, thinking he'd put the demon brat in his place. He froze when Naruto grinned darkly.

"It's true. This part of me hasn't helped people, but the other part has. In fact, he's done more than almost any ninja in this village."

"Really? And who is this 'mysterious other part' of you?" Naruto's grin widened.

"I think you might recognize him better if I do... this." With that, the old Naruto poofed into a cloud of smoke. When it was gone, the true Naruto Uzumaki stood in his place.

Tall, arms crossed, cap pulled low, and with a wide grin, the Nightfox looked at Mizuki with amusement. He raised an arm and inspected his glove.

"Oh, and by the way... I happen to think I'm pretty damn good at pranks, myself."

Every single person stared at him in total, utter, absolute shock. Iruka looked at the blond boy, surprised and more than a little happy.

Sakura stood up and looked at him, her jaw hanging open. He turned and saw her staring at him, and grinned foxily.

"Told you I was closer than you thought," he said, and she nodded dumbly.

Mizuki, who had been ignored in the whole confusion, pulled a kunai out of his pouch and rushed towards Iruka, intent on stabbing him in the back. Before he could, Naruto's Cane wrapped around his arm and pulled him off course. He crashed to the ground, and Naruto was on him in a second.

"It's not polite to attack people while their backs are turned," the blond growled, and electricity danced along his body. Four cuffs of solid lightning came out of his body, pinning Mizuki to the ground.

"What the hell did you do to me, demon?" the soon-to-be ex-Chunin yelled at him.

"I made sure that you can't hurt anyone else," Naruto said to him, and stood up. He looked down, and saw Mizuki grinning maniacally at him.

"Is that what you think? Think again!" With that, he threw the kunai in his hand... towards Sakura. She saw it coming towards her, and dodged to the side, but it still lodged in her shoulder, making her cry out in pain. She fell to the ground, and Naruto was at her side in an instant.

"Hold on, Sakura. You're gonna be fine."

"Says the one who doesn't have a whacking kunai stuck in _his_ shoulder!" she shouted, and despite the situation, he grinned. The other students crowded around, the first being Ino, who kneeled at the pink-haired girl's side.

"I'm gonna try something that will heal you."

"Will it hurt?"

"Not really, but this will," he said, and pulled the blade out of her shoulder. She yelled and punched the closest thing, which happened to be Ino's arm. She yelled almost as much as Sakura did.

"OW!" Naruto cringed at the loud shouts, and then put his hands together. Small sparks danced along his palms, and he put both hands on the wound. Sakura jerked for a second, and then settled down. She blinked slowly.

"Wow. I feel... great!" She focused on Naruto. "What did you do?"

"Used my bloodline to heal your wounds. It'll sting for a couple more days, but the damage has been repaired." Everyone looked on, stunned for the second time today.

"You have a bloodline?"

"You can heal stuff?"

"How does your bloodline work?"

The barrage of questions was expected, but Naruto still fumbled for answers for a few seconds.

"Yes, yes, and my bloodline allows me complete control over electricity."

"That's not that special," Ino stated skeptically.

"It is, and I'll tell you why. I don't need any chakra to be able to use my ability, since it runs off a seperate system. Therefore, I can call upon electricity to do things that wouldn't normally be possible, with zero cost to my chakra. I can still use chakra and turn into fuel for the seperate system, but it's not absolutely necessary."

The students stood still, shocked for the third time that day. A bloodline like that easily surpassed nearly any other in the village!

"Does the Hokage know about this?" Iruka asked, and Naruto looked up at him.

"Yep. He's one of the first ones to find out."

"Does he know about you? The real you?"

"Of course." The instructor nodded in understanding.

"So that's why he decided to let you graduate this year."

"Pretty much."

"I can't say I'm surprised, given how much good you've done for the village over the past three years." Naruto nodded emphatically, and noticed that Shikamaru was looking rather pleased with himself throughout all of this.

"You knew already, didn't you, Shikamaru?"

"I had my suspicions. I mean, the prankster and the hero appeared on the exact same day, so I figured that they had something to do with each other."

"Well, you're suspicions proved right." The Nara genius nodded, and Ino approached.

"Can I have your autograph for my little brother? He's a really big fan of yours." He looked at the blond haired girl in surprise.

"I have fans?" he said with some dread.

"Totally! There's action figures, mini... whats that thing on your back called?"

"It's my Cane."

"Mini-Canes, t-shirts... tons of stuff, really." With each item listed, Naruto's face turned more and more scaredd.

"Umm... yeah, here." So saying, he took the pen and paper she offered, and signed his alias on it.

"I don't know if I should be flattered or horrified," he said tiredly, and the girls around the room giggled.

He looked up to see three dark haired boys making their way to the door, trying to be inconspicuous.

A second later, he was in front of them, leaning nonchalantly on the doorframe.

"And where do you think you're going?" he asked, and they all looked at where he'd been a second ago, then back at him.

"Get out of our way, demon! You have no right to stop us!" Sasuke said bravely.

"Uh... Yes I do," he said, like it was the simplest thing in the world. "You three deliberately cheated on this exam, therefore you must stand and face your punishment. That punishment can and will be decided by the Hokage and the Councils."

The Uchiha smirked.

"They're gonna rule in our favor. They always will, because they're afraid of us. Everyone is afraid of us!" Naruto walked forward until he was an inch away from Sasuke, looking down at him with a very,_ very_ dark look in his eyes.

"I'm not afraid of you, teme. Every single person in the Uchiha clan is arrogant, uncaring and dangerous. If this is how the Uchiha clan conducts it's business, maybe it needs to be removed altogether."

All three of the Uchihas, and everyone else in the room, shivered. Sasuke, still trying to assert his authority, decided to talk back.

"You dare threaten us? I can have you killed! There's no way you could ever beat m-" He was interrupted as Naruto's elbow slammed into his chest. His eyes bugged out of his head, and he crumpled to the floor, unconscious.

"Sorry. You were so wide open, I couldn't help myself." the blond said, a smirk on his face.

He turned to look at the other two Uchiha's, who stared at him fearfully.

"Take your trash with you," he said dismissively. They gathered up Sasuke and ran out of the room.

The Nightfox walked forward and jumped on the windowsill. Before he could leap outwards, a voice called him.

"Naruto!" Iruka said. The blond turned to look back at him questioningly, and caught the object that flew towards him.

"Report here tomorrow for team placement," the instructor said with a smile. Naruto grinned, tied the headband he'd caught around his left arm, and gave a mock salute.

"Roger that," he said, and leaped from the building.

* * *

There ya go, second chapter.


	3. Chapter 3

Third chapter. Here ya go.

* * *

Laughter echoed from inside of the Hokage's tower as Naruto, Cole, Anko, Kakashi and Sarutobi all discussed what had happened that day.

"You should've seen their faces!" Naruto said, giggling madly. Everyone burst into a fresh round of laughter.

"Well done, kid. I would've done anything to see that class after you revealed yourself," Cole said, smiling. Anko flashed a lecherous look at him and drew closer.

"Really Cole?" she asked. "Anything?"

"Anko! Not now!" he said uneasily, which drew muffled snorts from the rest of the occupants of the room.

Drawing himself up and trying to maintain a look of dignity, the Hokage turned to look at Naruto.

"Unfortunately, we'll have to end this session, no matter how funny it is. Naruto, the Councils have called a meeting, so you and I have to attend. Cole and Anko, that goes for you too. They're all asking why I allowed you to graduate and, unfortunately, are baying for your blood." Naruto gained a dark look in his eye at that, and his lip curled in distaste.

"Good. I've been meaning to... **speak with them.**" Everyone gulped as his voice turned slightly demonic, but then he calmed himself down and looked at the Hokage.

"Did you tell them about me? The real me?" Sarutobi smiled.

"No. I think it's time for me to drop my mask as well." Everyone grinned at that, and Naruto Henged into his other form.

For the past three years, the Hokage had also been wearing a mask of sorts. When Cole had told him about his plans for Naruto, the old man had decided to hide his true motives from the Councils as well.

With Naruto's consent, he'd been letting the Civilian Council, Danzo and the Elders get away with pretty much anything, always turning a blind eye to their blunders and tax evasions, or, in Danzo's case, blatant disregard of his orders to shut down the ROOT program. But now, he was getting ready to bring every single crime they had ever commited down on their heads, all at once.

_**10 minutes later**_

Naruto, Anko and Cole walked through the doors to the Council Chamber to see the two Councils already assembled. The Hokage sat in his chair, with the two elders flanking him on either side.

The Civilian Council looked at Naruto with blatant dislike, and glared at the two other arrivals. Everyone on the Shinobi Council looked at them impassively, save for one. Fugaku Uchiha, father of Sasuke, fixed his eyes on Naruto, hatred burning in them. He was the only one of the Shinobi Council members who totally hated the boy.

Said boy looked around and flashed a cheeky grin at them, drawing more glares.

"I'm sure you're wondering why you've been called here, Naruto, Cole, Anko." They all nodded, even though they already knew.

"The Civilian Council wants to drum Naruto out of the Shinobi program. I decided to call you in here to discuss what to do."

"I know what to do," Naruto said, drawing surprised glances. "Tell those who decided that to kindly go screw themselves."

For a second, no one moved. Then Cole and Anko started laughing. Sarutobi hid a smirk, and the Shinobi Council were trying hard to not chuckle.

Finally, the Civilians got over their shock, and a pink-haired man screeched at the blond ninja.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST SAY TO US, BRAT?"

"You heard me," he said, glaring at the civilian. He was Haro Haruno, Sakura's father, and a more sadistic and cruel man would be hard to find, besides in Konoha's Interrogation Center. He was also one of the ones who had tortured him during the three years.

The civilian began to get very uncomfortable at the glare that Naruto was giving him.

_He couldn't have remembered, could he?_ the man thought nervously.

Naruto looked around, and caught the eyes of two more people. One was Fugaku Uchiha. He was one of the three who had broken his arms in seven places. The other was Danzo. The blond knew full well who had ordered the attack on him many years before.

Both of them had noticed the glare he had sent Haro, and began to get nervous as he looked at each of them. The hard light in his eyes was uncharacteristic for him. Normally he acted like a happy-go-lucky idiot, but he was being unusually cold today.

Naruto looked away, satisfied. All three of his targets were getting nervous, and he knew that they suspected something. He glanced at the Hokage, who gave a surreptitious nod.

"Well, I've had enough of this prank. I think it's time to show you exactly who I am," Naruto stated, drawing surprised glances from the Councils. Of course, a couple of them had to insult him.

"We know exactly who you are, brat!" Haro yelled. "A worthless, no-talent weakling who isn't fit to lick my boots!" Several of the others laughed cruelly at that. The laughter died down when they saw Naruto, who had a small grin on his face.

"First of all, you're wearing sandals, not boots. Second of all, I'm not a worthless, no-talent weakling like you claim. In fact, I'm so talented, that I've been fooling all of you this whole time." Everyone looked at him, caught off guard. This wasn't the usual empty bluster that they expected from the blond. Rather, Naruto was talking coldly and calmly, like he was totally confident in himself.

Then he put his hands together, and released the henge. A burst of smoke issued into the room, causing the occupants to cough and hold their noses.

When it was gone, they all looked at where the old Naruto was, and saw who stood in his place.

Every single person's jaw, with the exception of Sarutobi, Anko and Cole, dropped.

And a few of the girls in the room blushed.

The tall, handsome boy gave a lazy smile, and waved.

"Hi."

Then the room exploded into chaos as everyone tried to say something.

Most of the Civilians were both confused, scared, and angry. They all had been stopped at one point or another by the masked vigilante, and were terrified at the implications of what would happen to them.

Most of the Shinobi Council, on the other hand, were just confused, but were starting to get a little happy.

Of course, someone had to complain.

"Stop trying to fool us with a henge, demon brat!" Fugaku shouted, and an icy claw gripped his heart when Naruto looked at him with a cold smile.

"This isn't a henge. This is my true form."

"And a very nice form, at that," Hana Inuzuka whispered to herself. Her mother, Tsume, who had heard her say it, turned and bashed her over the head. Neither of them knew that Naruto had heard the comment, and a ghost of a smirk touched his lips.

But then his face hardened, and he locked eyes with the Hokage.

"Should I show them?" he asked, and Sarutobi nodded, his eyes darkening.

"Kid, are you sure?" Cole asked.

"Everyone needs to know what I've been through, and who is guilty."

Naruto turned and looked at the screen that was coming down from the ceiling. He walked over to a projector that came up from the floor, and placed both hands on it.

Everyone gasped as small sparks began dancing all over Naruto's body. He opened his eyes, and they glowed blue, before the projector started to play. There were no speakers, he knew, but the sight of what he was about to show everyone would be enough.

"What are you doing now, brat?" Haro asked, and Naruto glared at him with normal eyes. Just for a second, though, they turned red.

"I'm going to show everyone my memories. Just a few of the _charming_ memories of what you did to me during those three years."

In a second, Fugaku, Haro and Danzo knew what was about to happen, and all three of them rushed forward to kill the blond.

Before they could get close, Sarutobi, Anko and Cole were in front of him. The Hokage stopped Danzo's kunai, Anko kicked Haro away, and Cole put Fugaku in a headlock.

Everyone sat down, muted with shock, as the three council members tried to make a blatant attempt to end Naruto's life. Then they all turned to look at the blond.

"Memory Replay," Naruto said, eyes glowing.

The screen flashed to life, and started showing the memories of Naruto's pain.

Image after image flashed by, showing what Naruto had suffered.

The Shinobi Council was rooted to their seats, totally frozen with shock and disgust. Each image was worse than the last.

Hana covered her mouth with her hands as each image flashed by, and tears started to form at the corner of her eyes.

This went on for a few minutes, and by the end, every single shinobi in the room was both horrified and furious. They turned to look at the Civilian side of the room, who were sweating profusely and totally terrified. The Hokage slammed Danzo away, and turned a glowering eye on the civilians.

"For the crimes of attempted murder, assault, tax evasion, theft, and torture, you are all sentenced to death. The executions shall be held-"

"Hold on. Why should we wait?" Naruto growled, and all the civilians cowered at the killing intent he was giving off. Sarutobi raised an eyebrow, and then nodded.

"In that case, Naruto, I leave it up to you. Deal with them however you see fit."

The blond smiled dangerously, and pulled off his cap, mask, gloves, and pack.

"Gladly." Then something happened. Naruto crouched slightly, and everyone started when they saw his eyes glowing red. His hair turned longer and shaggier, and his nails elongitated, turning into claws that made Tsume jealous. He opened his mouth, his canines longer, thicker, and sharper. A cracking sound could be heard as his bones expanded, and his muscles, already impressive, grew a little.

"**Next time you decide to try to destroy someone's life, make sure can't come back and bite**," Naruto said, his voice lower and demonic, and got down on all fours. "**But unfortunately for you, there won't be a next time.**" He lunged forward

The next few seconds were a blur of blood, screams, and flying bodies. The Shinobi's of the room all turned pale as they saw the slaughter in front of them.

Naruto slashed people with his claws, spilling blood and guts everywhere, and latched his teeth into a man's throat, tearing it open. A pool of blood spread outwards, and he put a hand in it. He glowed slightly, and electricity spread from his hands to the people running away from him. The charge was so great that it completely bypassed the rubber sandals some had on, and half a dozen people keeled over, their bodies smoking.

That left Danzo, Fugaku and Haro. Danzo glared at him impassively, and unrapped the bandages around his right arm. Naruto glared at him.

"**Don't think for a second that your eyes will protect you from me, Danzo.**" The old war-hawk stopped what he were doing and stared at the demonic boy in front of him.

Before they could even blink, Naruto raised a hand over his head and threw three Rockets at each of them.

They were so surprised at what happened, so totally unable to comprehend _what_ had happened, that they didn't even move, and instead stayed still. All three Rockets met their targets, and blasted them out of tower.

Naruto rushed forward, as did Hana, Anko and Cole. The Jinchūriki looked down out of the tower to see a crater in the ground. It was Haro, who's back, along with most of his bones, was broken.

"**The other two got away**," Naruto said, cursing. Then he stiffened, and he began to change back. His hair receded a little, and his muscles shrunk. His teeth shortened to their normal lenght, and when he opened his eyes, they were their normal cerulean color.

The blond, to everyone's surprise, fell to one knee, panting heavily. Sweat beaded his forehead, and he closed his eyes as the strain of what he had done finally hit him.

"Damn," he said in his normal voice. "Turning still hits me every time I use it."

"Turning?" Hana asked, kneeling down to feel Naruto's forehead. He was burning up. She looked down to see that he hadn't come out of the fight unscathed. A kunai was sticking out of his side, and he had a huge cut on his arm.

"I'll explain... later..." he said, and fell forward, unconscious. She went to pick him up, but Cole forestalled her.

"Wait, I can heal him." She looked at him skeptically, but turned to look at her mother and the Hokage, who both nodded.

The elder Conduit came forward, and pulled the Kunai out of Naruto's side.

"Oi, kid, I keep on telling you not to push yourself too hard," he said, and placed both hands on his protege's chest. Electricity danced along his body, drawing gasps from everyone who hadn't seen it before.

He used Pulse Heal on Naruto who jerked for a second, as the effects of both Cole's power and his own healing ability hit him.

The cuts began closing up, and Cole nodded, satisfied.

"All right, he should be good to go in a few hours. Just needs to sleep off the after-effects."

"Umm, Cole-san?" Hana asked tentitavely. "What just happened to Naruto?" The Conduit turned an eye on her, and then sighed.

"You should ask the Hokage that. I'm no good with storytelling." He threw the blond boy over his shoulder, and jumped out of the room, followed closely by Anko, who had picked up Naruto's possessions.

Everyone turned to look at the Hokage, who sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"This is going to take a while."

* * *

So, harem right now includes Sakura, Hana, Ino, Hinata, Tenten, Temari, Kin and Tayuya. If there are any other suggestions, send me a PM or review.


	4. Chapter 4

This is my first attempt at a takeover, so I'll try to do the best I can.

So, for your enjoyment, chapter 4 of the Nightfox.

* * *

Naruto groaned with pain as a splitting headache hit him full on. He opened one eye to see that Anko and Cole were both hanging out outside his room, and then he remembered what he had done to be here.

Finally, he'd killed those who had made his life hell. He hated to admit it, but it had felt good. _Really_ good.

He got up out of bed, pulled on his gloves and pack and walked out of his room, facing his two guardians.

"Hey, kid. How are you?" Cole asked, leaning on Naruto's Cane.

"I'm okay, I guess. I'm just pissed that Danzo and Fugaku escaped," he said with a growl.

"We'll get them, Naruto. They're fugitives now, and they can't hide forever," Anko said, laying a hand on his shoulder.

"Thanks," he said, giving a slight smile.

"Hana Inuzuka stopped by," Cole said, smirking as Naruto's cheeks reddened slightly.

"What did she want?" the blond asked.

"Oh, she just wanted to know how you were doing," Anko said, smiling as she saw what Cole was getting at.

"Quite a looker she is, too." Now, Naruto was blushing at what they were implying.

"B-but... I'm not... there's no..." he stuttered, and they both had to struggle to keep from laughing.

"Don't pretend you didn't hear what she said in the council meeting, kid," Cole said. "If I could hear it, I know that you could have too."

"Well... yeah... but..." Naruto said, and by now he looked like a tomato.

"Face it, Naruto. She thinks you're hot, you obviously think she's hot, judging from the color on your face," Anko said, smirking. "What's there to discuss?"

The blond looked like he was about to go up in flames, then turned around and walked towards the door.

"I need some air," he said. As he opened the door and stared out into the night. It was raining, but he liked the rain. Suddenly, an Anbu appeared a few paces away.

"Naruto-san, Mizuki has escaped from custody and has stolen the forbidden scroll. Hokage-sama requests your presence to help try to catch him." Naruto went from blushing to serious in an instant.

"Roger, I'll be right there." The Anbu nodded and disappeared as the blond walked back inside.

"Cole!" he said, motioning for his Cane. The elder Conduit tossed it to him, and he put it into the holster on his sling-pack before sprinting out of the room.

"Wonder what that was about?" Cole asked, and Anko shrugged.

"Whatever it is, Naruto can handle it. In the meantime, we have a dango date to go to."

* * *

Mizuki cackled as he ran through the forest. Finally, he'd managed to steal the forbidden scroll. Orochimaru-sama was going to reward him well for this.

A furious feeling came over him as he remembered the events of earlier. The idiot prankster had turned out to be the Nightfox! But then he smiled again. He'd still gotten away. Perhaps the hero wasn't all he'd been stacked up to be.

He suddenly heard something and twisted in midair to avoid the rain of kunai that came from the forest.

He landed lightly and looked at the source. Expecting to see a jounin at least, he was surprised to see Hana Inuzuka standing on a branch, her arm extended from throwing the kunai at him. Her three nin-dogs growled at him from different points. He raised an eyebrow at her choice of attire. She was wearing a black, short-sleeved shirt and skin-tight pants, that showed off most of her curves. And with the rain, it hugged her form even more.

The frown on his face turned to a lustful grin.

"What do you want, Inuzuka?" She glared at him.

"I've come to take back the forbidden scroll."

He smirked and created three Shadow Clones. They each attacked one of her nin-dogs, while he attacked their handler.

He threw several punches and kicks. She managed to block them, barely. His grin increased as he realized that he could beat her.

As if to emphasize what he was thinking, she caught one of his kicks in the stomach, throwing her back into a tree.

He looked around as she tried to recover, to see that his three clones had taken care of each of her nin-dogs. The lavender-haired traitor sneered down at the Inuzuka before him, before getting a wicked idea.

Hana cursed silently as she looked up at the traitor before her. Somehow, he was a lot stronger than a chunin.

"Having trouble, Hana?" he asked with a cruel look on his face.

"You wish, you bastard," she growled, and tried to get on her feet again, but Mizuki's knee connected with her stomach, causing her to drop again.

"Ah ah ah, why don't we have a little chat? It's been so long since we've talked."

"Go to hell."

"That's where you're going, after I'm finished with you," he said, making no secret of the fact that he was checking her out. She flushed angrily before rising up and throwing another punch. He caught it and spun her around, pressing her against the tree.

"Let go of me!" she yelled, before he clapped a hand over her mouth.

"Keep quiet now, we wouldn't want any interruptions," he said, a crazed and lustful grin on his face.

His hands descended to her pants, preparing to rip them off.

"Well unfortunately, you've got one," said a voice, before a figure detached itself from the trees and slammed into the rogue ninja, knocking him away.

Mizuki landed heavily a dozen feet away from where he'd started, before flipping up and glaring at the person who'd knocked him away.

Naruto stood calmly, his Cane slung over his shoulder. He turned to look at the frightened kunoichi.

"You alright, Hana?" he asked, and she nodded mutely.

"What are you doing here, brat?" Mizuki snarled. His face flushed furiously as he realized that the blond wasn't even paying attention to him.

Naruto, for his part, walked forward to check on the Haimaru triplets, Hana's nin-dogs. They each seemed okay, only a few minor wounds, and they were all unconscious.

He stood up and glared at Mizuki, taking out his Cane as he did so. The rogue ninja smirked.

"Ready to play? I'm not going to be beaten by trickery again." Naruto raised an eyebrow at that.

"You think I won by tricking you?"

"I know you did. That's the only way you could have done it." The blond gave a calm grin and crouched slightly.

"Care to test that theory?" he asked. Mizuki snarled and leaped forward, whipping out a kunai.

He stabbed forward towards Naruto's chest, but the blond merely sidestepped the attack, poking Mizuki in the arm as he did so.

The lavender haired ninja landed lightly a few meters away and smirked.

"And what was that supposed to do?" Naruto returned the smirk and crossed his arms.

"Try moving your arm and see." Mizuki frowned and did, but found that his entire arm wouldn't budge.

"What did you do to me, brat?" he shouted.

"Knocked out your nervous system for that arm. Helps if you can control electricity."

Mizuki growled and launched himself forward again, swinging wildly, trying to hit the blond at least _once._ But he managed to dodge all of his swings, looking almost nonchalant.

"How the hell are you beating me, brat?" The lavender-haired ninja yelled, his swings becoming wilder and wilder.

"I would appreciate if people would stop calling me that, it get's rather hurtful if _everyone_ keeps saying it," he said, as he dodged another punch.

"I hope it's getting hurtful, brat!" Naruto's eyes darkened and he caught Mizuki's fist.

"Why? Don't you think you've hurt me enough?" he said, as he increased the pressure on the rogue ninja's fist until he felt the bones grind together in his grip. Mizuki gasped with pain and fell to his knees, trying to keep his hand from being crushed.

"I know why you think you had to hurt me. I know about the demon in my gut. It's thanks to that demon that I survived," he said, drawing a stunned look from Mizuki and a questioning one from Hana. "And I'm telling you right now, she's actually pretty nice. " The rogue ninja stared at him for a full five seconds before his jaw dropped.

"_She_?" Naruto raised an eyebrow and let go of the man's hand.

"Of course you wouldn't think she would be a girl, sexist prick," the blond said, frowning. "But that's besides the point."

So saying, he raised his Cane to strike before Mizuki suddenly threw up his hands.

"Wait, wait! Don't kill me, please! My master will give you anything you want, just don't kill me!" Naruto raised an eyebrow at the sudden cowardice coming from the lavender-haired ninja.

"And who is you're master?" he asked.

"Orochimaru! He ordered me to steal the forbidden scroll from Konoha!" It had already been cold with the rain, but the temperature seemed to drop another ten degrees as Naruto heard that.

Hana felt the change in atmosphere and looked at the blond fearfully. His fist's were clenching and his muscles knotting as he struggled to contain his temper. She'd seen him when he'd killed the Council members, and had been scared. The tall boy had been angry then. But now, she could tell, he was furious.

Mizuki made the mistake of looking into Naruto's eyes for a split second, and what he saw there he would never be able to describe. The amount of pain and anger in those eyes almost made him want to end his own life just to avoid it, but before he could do anything, Naruto's eyes closed and he drew a long, shuddering breath.

"Go back to the snake-teme. Tell him I'm coming for him next," he said, pulling the forbidden scroll from Mizuki's grip. Then he looked at the lavender haired ninja one last time. "Tell him...** that the Nightfox is coming.**"

Mizuki almost fell over trying to get away from the blond, not even bothering to worry about the forbidden scroll.

Naruto sighed slightly as the rogue ninja disappeared through the trees, before letting himself relax and turning back to Hana.

"You alright?" he asked quietly.

"I think I should be asking you that," she answered. He looked up at the attractive brunette and gave a slight smile.

"Let's talk back at my house. I need to make sure that the Triplets are okay." So saying, he created a dozen Shadow clones to help him carry the three nin-dogs.

A few minutes later, Naruto and Hana were standing in the Namikaze compound while they checked over the dogs.

"They seem to be okay, just some minor wounds," the blond said, looking over at Hana, who was shivering slightly. Suddenly realizing that she must be freezing, he pulled a coat out of his bag and offered it to her, smiling.

"Thanks," she said, taking it with a small smile, before walking into a separate room and starting to change.

Naruto blushed as he got a good look at her curvy back through the glass window, and looked away before she noticed. He looked down to see one of the Triplets looking at him with what he swore was an accusing look.

"What?" he asked. "I didn't see anything." The dog laid back down in what looked like a sarcastic move, like he was saying; _Sure. Keep telling yourself that, bub._

Naruto was jolted out of his thoughts as Hana came back into the room, wearing his dark jacket and looking slightly better.

"You okay?" he asked. She smiled and nodded, though he could tell that she wasn't as okay as she claimed to be.

"Are you?" she asked, and he grimaced slightly.

"Yeah, I was just remembering a... rather painful part of my life," he said. "Sorry you had to see it, by the way. Those were gentlest memories I could find."

She looked at him like he'd grown a second head.

"_Gentle?_" she gasped, looking horrified. "You mean... there are _worse?_"

He looked away, careful not to meet her eyes, while he mentally face-palmed.

_Idiot. Why'd you have to say that?_ he thought.

Luckily, he was saved from having to answer when there was a knock at the front door. He excused himself quietly, before walking over and opening it to reveal Sakura, who was drenched and furious.

"You bastard!" she yelled, before slapping him in the face, hard. He rubbed his jaw, frowning. The pinkette could really pack a wallop when she wanted to.

"Hello, Sakura," he said calmly, and she slapped him again, this time on the other side of the jaw. He let out a breath of air, before looking back at the furious girl in front of him.

"Care to come in?" he asked, and she slapped him for a third time, before walking in, not even bothering to look back to see if he was following.

He stood there for a second to make sure none of his teeth had popped out, before squaring his shoulders and walking after her.

He found her standing in the room with Hana and the Triplets, who all gave him questioning looks. He made a motion for silence, before walking up behind Sakura and clearing his throat.

"Why?" came the one word, laced with pain and anger. She turned to look at him, furious tears falling from her eyes. "Why did you kill my father?" Naruto's face tightened as he looked down at her.

"Because of what he did to me."

"And what was that?" she asked. "What could he have done to you that was so bad that it would be worth killing him?"

Hana was about to respond angrily, but before she could, Naruto said something neither of them expected to hear.

"Well, for one, he made me eat a snail," the blond said, with absolutely no emotion in his voice. Sakura sputtered for a second before she finally managed to say something.

"Why would that be worth killing him?" she yelled, more angry than ever.

"Because it was a marbled cone snail," the blond said, avoiding her gaze.

"So what?" the pinkette shouted, and Naruto looked up at her, barely concealed anger behind his eyes.

"The marbled cone snail is one of the most poisonous animals on the planet, Sakura," he growled. "A single drop of it's slime can kill an elephant, and he made me swallow it."

Sakura and Hana both looked stricken, the pinkette even more so, as they absorbed the full impact of those words. And then to add to the weight, Naruto said something else.

"Frankly, I'm not even sure which one of my internal organs exploded first once he shoved it down my throat."

The two girls stood there, looking horrified, as the blond turned away, his fists clenching.

"I'm going to bed. I trust you can show yourselves out?" he growled. Not waiting for an answer, he walked up the stairs.

For a good five minutes, neither of them said anything, before Sakura began to cry. Hana came over and held her lightly, and they stood together like that for a further ten minutes, until the pinkette finally calmed down.

"Is... is what he said true?" she asked.

"Yes. That and more. If you saw what your father had done to Naruto, you'd have wanted to kill him too," Hana replied, as Sakura burst into a fresh round of tears.

"How... did he survive?" the pink haired girl asked, disengaging from the other girl's arms and wiping her eyes.

"I don't know. When he saved me from Mizuki, he mentioned a 'demon' in his gut, and how it saved his life. I don't know what that means."

"He means the Nine-Tailed Fox," said a new voice, and they both turned to see Cole MacGrath and Anko Mitarashi standing in the doorway, both looking grim.

"Both of you should sit down," Anko said. "We have a lot to talk about."

* * *

There's chapter 4. Hope you enjoy!


	5. Chapter 5

Fifth chapter. Here ya go.

* * *

If the conversation with Naruto had made Sakura feel terrible, the conversation with Anko and Cole made her feel about a thousand times worse.

Learning about both the Kyuubi and the torture at the same time was a lot to take in, but by the time she did, she felt like a complete and utter bitch.

Hana was stricken by what she'd heard, especially about the three years of torture Naruto had to endure.

"How is he still sane?" the Inuzuka female asked. "If that were me, I would have cracked in the first hour!"

Cole grimaced. "It was touch and go for a while. After the procedure, he was inside his room for days while he recovered. Sometimes, at night, he would wake up, roaring in pain, as he had nightmares about what he'd endured." Both of the younger occupants in the room gulped.

"Finally, after about three days, he came out, tired as hell, but pretty determined to start training. Said it helped him focus on other things." Anko said, nodding emphatically.

"He's really come a long way. When we first started teaching him, he could barely learn anything, I guess because he was still dealing with all the memories. But later, once he started to get into a groove, he advanced really quickly. The shit he can do, it's ridiculous." Cole said, grinning slightly.

"Naruto has the most powerful will of anyone I've ever heard of. Barely anything hurts him anymore," Anko stated, her hands behind her head as she reclined on the couch. Cole gave her a look.

"Can we show him off? Just this once?" Cole said in a whiny voice as Anko sighed.

"Oh, alright. What was the last thing that managed to injure him?" she asked, and his expression turned thoughtful.

"I dunno. It might have been that rock that got chucked at him a few months back."

"Cole! That thing wasn't a rock, it was a 13 ton slab of concrete, and even then he only got bruised!"

"True, but he's dealt with bigger before." Anko rolled her eyes at him.

"Yeah, but not thrown at twenty miles an hour."

"I guess."

They both turned to look at Sakura and Hana, who were staring at them with wide eyes. Cole grinned.

"What can I say? Kid's tough."

Sakura tried to smile, but it came out as a half-hearted grimace. "Naruto must hate me right now, huh?"

"Of course he doesn't," Anko admonished. The pink-haired girl looked at her in surprise.

"But I said all of those horrible things to him, and I didn't know-"

"Exactly," the purple haired jounin interrupted, flicking Sakura on the nose. "Naruto knows that you didn't know. He isn't the type of guy who would blame you for something that was mostly his fault anyway."

"Yeah," the Conduit said, his eyes closed. "Kid's cool like that. Real good at making friends."

"Hell of a cook."

"Terrible table manners."

"Ridiculously fast."

"Good at cable-tag."

"Stronger than hell."

"Horrific dancer."

"Good with a banjo."

"Hit with the ladies."

At that, both younger kunoichi blushed.

Before Anko could smack Cole upside the head, an enormous crashing sound reverberated throughout the kitchen, making Sakura and Hana jump.

"Think that's the lumberjack?" Cole asked, one eye open.

"No, he wouldn't be out this late at night... which means..."

They looked at each other for a second before Cole cursed. He got up from the couch and went over to the window. Opening it, he stuck his head out.

"DAMMIT KID, WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT BREAKING THE FUCKING TREES? IF YOUR GONNA TRAIN, DO IT OUTSIDE THE DAMN PROPERTY!" he yelled out into the night, his voice echoing for a second before a reply came.

"SORRY! FORCE OF HABIT! I'LL HEAD TO THE LAKE!" Naruto yelled back, and Cole shut the window, muttering about blond 'idjits'. Hana and Sakura stared for a second, before Hana decided to ask.

"What was that about?" she asked, and Anko chuckled quietly while Cole frowned.

"Just some training that Naruto's doing."

"What kind of training involves breaking down trees?" she asked, and Anko's smile widened while Cole's frown lowered.

"Sorry, trade secret," he said.

"Come on, Cole. You said yourself you wanted to show him off," Anko said, smirking as he sighed in defeat.

"Fine, I guess. Don't blame me if you go blind from sheer awesomeness. I'm gonna go to bed. G'night."

Both girls raised an eyebrow at this, quietly said goodnight, then followed Anko out the door.

**15 minutes later**

The three kunoichi jumped from tree to tree as they made their way to Naruto's location.

"What kind of training does Naruto do, exactly?" Sakura asked, and Anko looked back to give her a cheeky grin.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, so instead I'll show you," she said, landing on a branch and stopping, the two other kunoichi coming to a stop behind her. Peering through a gap in the trees, all three of them could see the beginnings of a small lake. It had stopped raining a while ago, and the moon was shining, showing them what was on the lake.

It was Naruto. Water-walking.

And shirtless.

Both of the young girls blushed twelve new shades of red as they saw the blond boy's physique. Constant hours of training, combined with eating healthily, had turned Naruto into a veritable epitome of male fitness. Every muscle seemed to have been chiseled from stone, especially in the moonlight which was shining off of his body.

They managed to tear their eyes away from his body to look at his face, and were surprised to see a blindfold over his eyes, earplugs in his ears, and a piece of tape on his nose. This made it so he couldn't see, hear or smell.

"What's he doing?" Hana asked.

"You'll see," Anko replied, giggling in excitement.

Their attention returned to Naruto as he crouched slightly, his Cane in hand. For a few seconds, nothing happened, until a shadowy figure detached itself from the tree's running over the surface of the lake towards the blond.

Hana and Sakura caught a glimpse of metal and realized that the figure was holding a kunai. They were about to try to stop the person, but before they could move, Anko grabbed both of their sleeves.

"What are you doing?" Sakura asked.

"Just wait. Wait and watch." They both reluctantly relaxed and turned back to watch as the figure got ever closer to the still crouching Naruto.

A second before the figure could sink the blade into Naruto's back, the blond side-stepped and tripped the person going by, causing them to fall into the water. He put his hand into the water and sent a pulse of electricity into the liquid, enough to cause the figure to dispel, revealing a shadow clone.

"How did he do that?" They both asked, and Anko looked at them, confused.

"Which part?" The younger kunoichi looked at each other for a second, before looking back at her.

"How did he do that electricity thing?" Hana asked.

"How did he sense that person coming?" Sakura asked.

"To the first question, bloodline ability. To the second, no idea." They both sweatdropped at her answer and look back at the blond object of their fascination.

On the lake, more and more clones were coming at Naruto, stabbing, slashing, punching, kicking, yet not a single blow managed to land on him. On the contrary, it seemed like he knew exactly where each blow would land, and moved accordingly.

Also, as each blow missed, he sent one back, always striking at the perfect time with uncanny precision. Each punch or swipe with his Cane landed on one of the figures, causing it to dispel, one after another.

Finally, after no more clones arrived, he calmly walked to the edge of the lake, before stopping and removing the tape, earplugs and blindfold. He put on his shirt, much to the disappointment of two of the watchers, and put down his Cane, before walking up to a tree. The tree was about fifteen feet in diameter and about 130 feet tall, and Naruto settled in front of it in a ready stance.

He seemed to concentrate for a second, then punched forward faster than any of them could see.

Neither Hana nor Sakura knew what to expect, but they certainly didn't expect the trunk of the tree to be blown apart by the sheer force of the blonde's punch, which caused it to start to fall forwards.

Naruto wasn't having any of that.

Launching a series of punches, he blew the tree apart, meter by meter, until he reached the top. With a final punch, the entire tree, save the stump on the ground, was gone, completely pulverized.

He walked back to his sling-pack and pulled it on, putting his Cane in it's sheath. He seemed to smile before vanishing from sight. They all looked around for a second before a voice rang out from behind them.

"Have a fun time watching?"

All three turned around to see Naruto standing on a branch, arms crossed. Both younger girls stared at him like he was from another planet while Anko gave him a smile.

"Done showing off yet?" she asked, and he returned her smile with one of his own.

"Of course," he said, before turning to the younger kunoichi, his smile dropping off his face. "I wanted to apologize to both of you for the way I acted earlier. I was... a little upset."

"You're apologizing to us?" Hana asked, genuinely surprised. He seemed confused.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I? I did act like a bit of a dick back there, so..." the blond said, not understanding. Sakura came forward and looked at the young Conduit.

"Naruto... I wanted to say sorry also..."

"You're saying sorry?" he asked, completely befudled. "Why?"

"I-I said all those horrible things to you!" At that, he laughed.

"Meh, that wasn't so bad. I've gotten worse remarks than that. Besides, how could I stay angry at you when I was the one at fault?" he asked, leaving Anko smirking and Sakura confused.

"What do you mean?" His smile turned into a grimace.

"Sakura, I killed your father. And I'm ashamed to admit it, but I wanted to. I _enjoyed_ it." He gave Hana a look. "That form you saw me take in the council chamber. It actually serves almost no combat purpose. It's actually one of my weakest forms, except when I want people to feel fear. _That's_ why I changed into it. I wanted all of the civilian council members to be afraid, to be terrified, before I killed them."

He sat down heavily and all three of them saw his fists clenching.

"Your father was scum, Sakura. There's no way to sugarcoat it. During the three years, he was one of my 'regulars'. Whenever he had free time, he would torture me, over and over again, for hours on end. Compared to him, some of the others were saints. And yet, today, I let my anger, my fury at him get in the way of my judgement. I realized that he was your father, but I didn't care. I took him away from you all the same. For that, I'm sorry."

So saying, he got on his knees, planted his fists in the ground and bowed his head.

"I'm so sorry."

He stayed like that for a few seconds before a pair of arms wrapped around his neck.

Sakura had felt her eyes go blurry once Naruto bowed his head and apologized, and she immediately dropped down on her knees as well and hugged him, crying into his shirt. Surprised, he hugged her back.

"Y-You baka... w-what my dad did to you, I-I should be thanking you." He truly didn't know what to say to that, so he just hugged her tighter. This is the scene that Cole walked in on.

"Hey kid! Got you a present!" he said loudly, shocking everyone out of their stupor. They remained like that for a few seconds before Anko knocked him over the head.

"OUCH! What was that for?" the elder Conduit shouted.

"We were having an emotional moment, ya jackass!" she yelled back. "And you had to go and ruin it!"

"How the hell was I supposed to know that? I can't predict everything that you're doing!"

"Maybe not, but you could at least show a little tact and be a bit quieter!"

"I'll be quiet when I want to! You want me to kick your ass?"

"Oh, yeah? Bring it on, baldy!"

"Gladly!"

"SHUT IT!" Naruto shouted, causing both of them to stop, though they continued to glare at each other. Then they both relaxed.

"You know, when this is over," Anko said, "We should really have angry sex."

That caused Naruto to face-palm, muttering '_bipolar much?_'. Sakura and Hana both blushed, and Cole crossed his arms.

"Don't objectify me," he shot back, half angry, half pleased.

"If you two are done making out, could you please tell us what you're doing here, Cole?" Naruto said.

"Oh right," he said, and pulled off his sling-pack. "I totally forgot about the present I was gonna give you when you graduated." So saying, he pulled out a bottle.

"You're giving him beer, Cole?" Anko asked, eyebrow raised.

"Hell no, that's for me. This is what I'm giving him."

From the confines of his bag he withdrew a strange, glowing, purple stone. Naruto's eyes widened to epic proportions as he saw what it was that Cole was holding. Sakura and Hana both looked confused, as they'd never seen a stone like that before.

"The last Blast Core? You're giving it to me?" Naruto asked, stunned.

"Hell yeah, kid, you deserve it." The blond took the stone from Cole's fingers, holding it with his right hand as the elder Conduit popped the top off of his beer bottle and held it up in a toast.

"Half as long," he said, grinning at Naruto, who grinned back.

"Twice as bright." They clinked their respective objects together, before Cole took a swig of his beer. Naruto, on the other hand, put both his hands on the Blast Core, before looking at Hana and Sakura.

"You might want to step back," he said, before taking a breath and sending a current of electricity into the Blast Core. Both girls jumped back as lightning surged around Naruto's body, seemingly from the stone that had been in his hands a second ago. This continued for a moment until all the energy stopped flowing, dropping the blond into a heap.

They rushed over to see that Naruto was unconscious, small sparks jumping off of his body at random.

"Damn, I should have had him do that back at the house," the elder Conduit said. "Then I wouldn't have to carry him, the fat idiot."

"He's not fat," Sakura and Hana both said, causing Anko and Cole to smirk.

"So you did notice," Anko said, making both kunoichi blush. Cole walked over to Naruto, put him in a fireman's carry, and started jogging back towards the house, the three kunoichi following behind him.

* * *

Okay, chapter 5 done. Hooray.


	6. Chapter 6

Chap 6. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto or Infamous.

* * *

Cole set Naruto down on the sofa heavily, and stepped back, wiping his forehead.

"Okay, now that that's done, I can go to bed." Anko gave him a flat look.

"So the reason you decided to jog him back all the way here was so you could go to sleep faster?"

"No, it was so I could have angry sex faster."

"... Smooth."

"Thanks." The purple-haired kunoichi rolled her eyes and turned to look at the two young girls standing there rather awkwardly.

"If you want to stay here for the night, you're welcome. We've got plenty of extra rooms," she offered.

"Well... we wouldn't want to intrude..." Sakura started, but was quickly cut off.

"And you wouldn't be. Besides, if Naruto wakes up and finds out we left you guys to find you're way back to you're homes alone, then he'll kick both our asses."

Sakura and Hana exchanged a look.

"Well, if we wouldn't be intruding..."

"And since it is a bit late to be walking around..."

"We accept!" they both said, causing Anko to smile. She led them off into a hallway, leaving the blond behind on the couch, something neither of them missed.

"Um... are we just going to leave Naruto there?" Hana asked.

"Sure, he doesn't mind. Slept in worse places, believe me."

As they walked down the hallway, they saw several pieces of art, all high end and very beautiful. This brought a whole new slew of questions to both of their minds.

"Who made all these?" Sakura asked, looking at a particularly beautiful sculpture.

"Naruto, mostly." They both gave her stunned looks.

"He did? Really?"

"Yep. Kid's a natural artist. Made some of the most beautiful sculptures I've ever seen. They sell for quite a lot of money," she said, checking out another one.

"I can tell," Hana said, fingering what looked like an intricately carved dragon made purely out of jade. "How does he make them?"

"Well, he helps mine the materials, namely the metals, and creates the precious stones himself. Combines blacksmithing, glassblowing, and a ton of other things to create them."

"How did he learn all that?"

"Trade secret, but he learned it quick. Took him about an hour to get each separate thing down, and was making crazy stuff right out of the gate."

The two younger kunoichi looked at each other, then back at Anko.

"Should we even ask?"

"Not right now, I'm tired and I need angry sex," she said, causing them both to roll their eyes. "Here are your rooms. G'night."

"Good night," they both said, and stepped in their respective rooms.

* * *

_Naruto hummed lowly as he sat on a rock. __His body and clothes were stained red with blood, as was his Cane. His head was bare, his blond hair moving slightly as a breeze hit it. His blue eyes looked lifeless as he looked out across the plain at the hundreds of ninjas on the ground, all of them dead or dying._

_He stood up, cracked his neck, shoved his hands in his pockets, and walked forward, taking care to avoid stepping on any of the bodies. __He stopped walking in the middle of a clearing where there were no bodies and sighed at the heat of the place, like being inside a rainforest._

_He turned around as four figures appeared behind him and raised an eyebrow._

_"Four of the Five Kage's? Just for little old me?" he said tiredly. "The Hokage's missing. Too 'important' to risk, huh?"_

_They didn't say anything._

_The Raikage, A, glared at him, his arms crossed._

_The Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, looked at him with indifference, but seemed on a hair-trigger alert._

_The Kazekage, Gaara, seemed almost sad that he was there._

_But it was the Mizukage, Mei Terumi, that he was most concerned with._

_She was glaring at him with such an intense look of loathing that it almost broke his heart._

_"We're finally going to get rid of you," she said hatefully. "You're going to burn in hell for what you've done."_

_Naruto's head lowered, his eyes shadowed his hair._

_"Really?" he mumbled, and the other three Kage's winced slightly at Mei's tone. They knew how much Naruto cared for her._

_"He told us what you did. How you killed all of those people. Seeing this battlefield, I believe it. You're nothing but a monster!" she said._

_"He lied to you," Naruto said, his head still bowed._

_"No, you lied to us!" Mei shouted. "You lied to me! You made me believe that you... that you..."_

_He looked up at her._

_"I do."_

_"NO YOU DON'T!" she yelled._

_"Whatever else you want to say about me, I don't care. But that's the one thing that'll never change," he said, freeing his hands from his pockets. "One last question though. Are they safe?"_

_"Safe from you," she said, and the four Kage's slid into their own fighting stances. They all looked up at the sky to see storm clouds gathering, lightning crackling through them. Ice was growing all over the plain, freezing everything solid, and yet, it seemed more humid than ever, especially around the blond, who was radiating heat and cold at the same time._

_Naruto chuckled quietly, before freeing his Cane and dropping the pack on the ground._

_"All right then. Now I'll show you-" he said, crouching slightly. "Why I'm the strongest person on this planet."_

Naruto gasped as he sprung awake on the sofa. That dream had been different than the others. Normally, memories surfaced, memories of torture. But this was different. He was watching himself, only a little bit older. It was like looking into the future. He knew about Cole and Kessler, how the other version of Cole had gone on a one-way trip back through time to change the outcome of the future, but he'd never heard of either of them having prophetic visions.

"Damn it," he said, his hand covering his eyes as he tried to stay awake.

He'd been having dreams ever since Anko and Cole had taken the seal off of him. Having the memories of three years of torture shoved back into his brain in the span of three minutes had been... unpleasant.

But he'd never told Cole or Anko exactly what had happened during the final year.

Exactly why he hated Orochimaru of the Sannin.

He sat for a few minutes, then yawned and stood up, taking off his pack, shoes, hat, gloves and shirt, until he was just in a white sleeveless shirt and pants. He walked outside, then latched unto the side of the building and began to climb. He made special care to avoid Cole and Anko's room, knowing what they were probably doing at the moment, and dropped down onto one of the decks outside one of the empty rooms. They were held up by solid oak beams, but the fall could be dangerous, especially since there were no railings to hold onto.

He sat down on the edge of one and looked up at the sky, still cloudy from the earlier rain. He raised both arms, and made a slow sweeping gesture.

The clouds began to veer to the outskirts of where he was looking as a minuscule hole opened up. He began to sweat slightly with the effort. The clouds were actually mostly water vapor, and, it had rained about an inch, which meant that in the entire cloud, there was a bit more than 17 million gallons of water, which would weigh around 70,000 tons.

Thankfully, he wasn't that ambitions, as he was simply opening up a smaller hole in the cloud. Still, it was hard.

Like, lifting several dozen boulders at once, hard.

Finally, he finished, drawing in a huge breath, as he stared at the hole he'd made, managing to see a few stars through it.

He smiled lightly. Stars had always been one of the few comforts he could draw from the world that had shown him little else but cruelty.

He laid down, hands behind his head, and stared up at the sky as the hole started to close.

_Akane-chan? You awake?_ he thought. A few seconds passed before Naruto heard a reply.

_Urnf? Wha?_ came a half-asleep voice.

_Sorry, go back to sleep,_ he said.

_No, it's okay. What's up?_

_I don't know. I'm just... tired._

_Hm. Come in and lets talk._

Naruto closed his eyes and let his consciousness fade as he entered his mindscape. His eyes opened and took in now-familiar room that held the Kyuubi no Yoko. Or, as she liked to be called, Akane.

Contrary to what it used to look like, now the room, besides the enormous cage, was now bare of water and held a sofa, several chairs, a hot-tub and a king-sized bed, which was occupied.

As always, Naruto stopped to admire the form of the vixen demoness, who was laying down on her stomach and propped herself up on one arm.

She was currently wearing a red kimono with black flame designs on it, which only came down to her upper thigh and showed a bit of cleavage. Her breast were big and firm, at least DD cup. Brilliant red hair streamed down to her rear, framing a heart-shaped face. Her red eyes were slitted, and three whisker-like marks similar to his were on her cheeks. Her canines, longer than average, showed as she smiled prettily at him.

"Hey, Naru-kun," she said.

"Hey, Akane-chan," he replied, sitting down in a chair across from the bed and leaning back heavily with a sigh. Her smile turned into a frown as she looked at him.

"Are you okay?" He let out a sigh, rubbing his temples.

"Yeah, I guess." She raised an eyebrow.

"That means that your most certainly not okay," she said. "What happened?"

"Today happened," he said. "Danzo and Fugaku escaped."

"You'll find them, they can't hide forever."

"That's what Anko said."

"And is she wrong?"

He looked across at her and leaned forward, putting his head in his hands.

"No. Maybe. No idea," he said, sighing again. "Had a weird dream."

"I saw."

"What'd you think?"

"I don't know. You've never had dreams like that before. I mean, whenever you have dreams, it's usually-" she stopped short, not wanting to say it. He gave her a wan smile.

"It's usually torture. It's fine, Akane, I'm not going to crack if you say the word."

"Oh, no?" she asked, drawing herself up.

"Here we go again," he grumbled, and she continued on, her voice shaking with anger.

"Naruto, look at yourself! You haven't slept for four days straight, and then you decide to wear yourself out by using a Blast Core! Do you have any idea how dangerous that was? Not to mention the fact that you've been practically torturing yourself ever since Anko restored your memories!"

"It's not that bad, Akane-chan," he said soothingly, but she wasn't having any of it.

"Not that bad? Not that _bad_? It's _so_ bad that you haven't even told Cole or Anko about it! You've gone through enough torture as it is, and you decided to deprive yourself of sleep! You stay awake for three or four days straight, then sleep for a few hours, and then do the same thing again!" By now, she was practically shouting.

"You know why I have to!" Naruto said, standing up. "I can't sleep unless I'm either put into a medically induced coma, which wouldn't work anyway, or unless I'm so tired that I pass out! This is the only option that I have left!"

"Naruto, you're killing yourself!" she yelled at him, her eyes growing wet. "You can't keep doing this, or you're going to die!"

She turned away, tears running down her face as she sobbed quietly. For a few seconds, the only sounds in room were the echoes of the Kyuubi's sadness. Then she felt herself getting hugged from behind, two muscular arms encircling her waist and pulling her against the owner of said arms.

"I'm sorry," Naruto said.

"Baka," she replied softly. "You know that this isn't your only option."

"It's the only one I'm willing to consider," he said, as she leaned back against him. "Sorry, Akane-chan. I'll keep going with this."

"You're still a baka. Baka, baka, baka," she said, banging her head against his shoulder with each 'baka'.

"You know it." She giggled slightly, then turned serious again.

"And now, your going to sleep." As he began to protest slightly, she shushed him. "I'll try to shield you as best I can from the memories, but you're going to sleep, even if I have to tie you to the bed."

He sighed at the look on her face, a look that promised pain if she wasn't obeyed. He grumbled and walked over to the bed, but couldn't resist a passing shot.

"Tie me to the bed, huh? Kinky Kyuu-chan..." he said, and she turned redder than her hair.

"You asshole!" she shouted, tackling him onto the bed and smacking him around while he laughed, struggling to defend himself.

A little while later, they both lay together quietly, worn out. Naruto lay in the center of the bed while Akane lay on his side, a hand on his chest.

"It's late already. You should go to sleep," she said.

"I will, later. I'm gonna stay awake for now." She looked at him suspiciously, and he gave her a smile. "I'll go to sleep soon."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Mm," she said, and closed her eyes. A few minutes later, he heard her breathing lessen as she fell asleep, and smiled at the sexy vixen.

"Good night, Akane-chan," he said, kissing the top of her head, before closing his own eyes.

* * *

Next morning...

Sakura woke up with a yawn and stretched lightly, wiping the moisture out of her eyes.

She took a second to remember where she was, looking around at the spacious room she'd slept in. The pinkette saw several closets, a sink and a bathroom, complete with a toothbrush, which she quickly used, then realized that she was still in her bra and panties, while her clothes were sitting in a heap at the foot of the bed.

Opening one of the closets, she found it to be almost empty, except for a couple of shirts that matched the one Naruto was wearing. Donning one, she found it came down to mid-thigh, showing how much shorter she was than Naruto.

She quietly opened the door and stepped outside, looking down the hall that was just beginning to shine with sunlight. She smelled something cooking, and followed the scent down the hallway.

Coming upon the living room where Naruto had slept, she heard someone whistling a tune and the crackling sound of oil. The pinkette looked past the door and saw Naruto.

He was whistling merrily and stirring bacon in a frying pan, wearing nothing but pajama bottoms and a T-shirt. She flushed slightly and decided to walk quietly away, but before she could, he turned around and caught sight of her.

"Hey, you're up!" he said, holding the frying pan lightly as he drained off the excess fat and put the bacon on a plate.

"Hi," she said, taking in the heavenly scent of cooking meat and smiling.

"Hungry?" he asked, grinning at the look on her face.

"Totally."

Naruto set up a set of plates and forks on the large table just outside, then came back in the kitchen and grabbed a bowl filled with sliced carrots and brought them out, setting them down next to the bacon. Finally, he brought out a big bowl of ramen, and got several smaller ones. He took one, and served himself a big dollop of the heavenly dish.

He sat down and immediately loaded his plate with a bunch of slices of bacon, taking a huge bite. Sakura sat down opposite him and took a couple of carrots. Tasting one, she noted that it was cooked to perfection and seasoned with a butter and a little bit of pepper.

"Mm, these are good!" she said, and he swallowed his bacon and smiled.

"My famous carrots! Glad you like 'em!" He looked down at her for a second and realized what she was wearing.

"Is that one my shirts?" he asked, and she shrugged sheepishly.

"Sorry, there wasn't anything else to wear."

"Ah, I don't mind. It looks good on you anyway," he said, and she blushed, then was reminded of something.

"Where's Hana?" she asked.

"She had to leave early, something about going to the vets office for work. So I sent a Shadow Clone to walk her there."

He looked behind her to see Cole and Anko descending the stairs.

"Hey, you two. Eventful night?" he asked sarcastically at their disheveled appearance. They both grinned, still half-asleep, and sat down at the table, each grabbing a piece of bacon.

"You have no idea," Cole said, bleary-eyed but smiling. "Speaking of eventful nights, what power did you get from the Blast Core?"

"I finally got _it_."

Sakura was confused by this, and looked over at Anko to see that she was out of the loop as well.

"What is _it?_"

Naruto and Cole traded conspiratorial glances and chuckled quietly.

"You'll find out soon, but for now, I'm still hungry," Cole said, taking another piece of bacon and munching on it contentedly.

"How was your sleep?" Anko asked Naruto, getting serious for a moment. At that, his smile turned into a tired grimace.

"It was alright. No nightmares." Anko and Cole both frowned.

"Maybe so, but they're still getting more frequent," the kunoichi said quietly.

"I still think we should go with my idea, kid," Cole said, frowning. "It might work, and make everything a little bit easier."

"No, Cole, I'm not doing it. I'm not just gonna forget everything so that I can sleep better," Naruto said, crossing his arms.

Anko, seeing Sakura's confused expression, elaborated.

"Cole thinks that we should seal away the memories of what Naruto experienced," she said, and Sakura nodded, before turning to Naruto.

"But don't you want to forget?"

"Yes, believe me, I do, but not yet. I still have three people left to kill, and I'm not going to do it until I find them," he said darkly, but brightened considerably. "But enough of this dreary stuff. We still have to go to the academy later."

"Oh, right," Sakura said. In all honesty, she'd completely forgotten, what with everything that had happened over the past day.

A little while later, they'd finished their breakfast, Anko took Sakura's clothes to wash. She finished them just as it was time to go.

Sakura walked downstairs from changing to see Naruto standing in the door, his Nightfox gear on.

"Hey," he said. "You ready?"

"Yeah."

"Then let's go!" he said and ran out the door, Sakura following close behind.

15 minutes later, they arrived at the academy, Naruto breathing normally, Sakura panting from the intense running she'd had to do as she wondered how Naruto had so much stamina.

The blond looked up at the building and grinned. He couldn't believe that he was finally graduating today. Everything seemed to be going perfect...

"Hey dobe!"

...until Sasuke showed up.

Naruto turned around, eye's closed, and dodged a punch that was aimed at his head. He opened his eyes to see Sasuke throwing another punch, which he promptly moved aside for, allowing Sasuke to pass him and fall over.

"What do you want, Sasuke?" he asked in a bored tone of voice, pretending not to notice as Genji and Akihiko snuck up on him from behind. Sasuke smirked, and snapped his fingers. Akihiko grabbed one of Naruto's arms while Genji grabbed the other, holding him down... or so they thought. Naruto winked at Sakura, who had been about to intervene, and turned back to look at Sasuke, who was cracking his knuckles as he got back up.

"You've humiliated my father and brought disgrace upon the noble Uchiha clan. For that you will be punished," he said. At this, Naruto raised an eyebrow, then laughed.

"First part of that sentence was true, the second, not so much. The words noble and Uchiha generally do not belong in the same sentence."

Sasuke growled, then reached into his pocket, bringing out a pair of brass knuckles, which he promptly put on, grinning savagely. He struck Naruto once, then twice in the stomach as hard as he could.

The blond laughed.

"Dude, seriously? Is that all you've got? I've felt mosquitoes bite harder!" he said, causing Sasuke to grit his teeth, then hit him again, this time in the face. He smirked as he saw a bit of blood run down the side of the boy's mouth, but growled when Naruto was still smiling, causing Sasuke to try to hit him again.

Key word being tried.

Naruto pulled his left arm, the one held by Akihiko, towards himself, pulling the Uchiha forward into the path of Sasuke's fist, knocking him away, while he pushed Genji off of himself, shoving the flimsy stick of a boy into a bramble bush.

The result was one groaning and one yelping Uchiha right next to him. He looked up and smirked at Sasuke, now alone.

"I would kick your ass... but I don't want to. After all, that's what he's here for." he said, rubbing his neck and smiling as he pointed up the stairs, where Iruka was standing, looking away.

"Iruka!" Sasuke said, causing said teacher to turn his head. "Did you see what Naruto did?"

When Iruka shook his head no, the Uchiha began to weave a completely one sided and biased tale of how Naruto had assaulted him and his siblings, and how Sasuke had valiantly stood up to him and managed to stop him.

"Is that exactly what happened?" Iruka said.

Sasuke took a look around to see several students who had arrived and who were glaring at him dangerously. It was his word against both their's and Naruto's, but with his usual arrogance, thought he could get away with it.

"Yes, that is exactly what happened." At that, Iruka gave an angry smile.

"Really? Cause I've been standing here for a while now, and I saw pretty much everything. Seems to me that your siblings held Naruto down while you beat him up."

Naruto started laughing at the expression on Sasuke's face, who realized that he'd been tricked.

"Hahaha! Oh, nice one, Sensei!" the blond laughed.

"That's the second time I've had to reprimand you, Sasuke," Iruka said. "If it happens again, then you'll be suspended from active duty."

"What? You can't do that!" Sasuke yelled. The chunin instructor raised an eyebrow.

"Actually, I can, since I'm above you in rank. One visit to the Hokage is all it'll take. And, by the way, Akihiko did not pass the genin exam, therefore he's not allowed to be here." Iruka said. He walked away, leaving a furious Uchiha and a grinning Uzumaki behind.

"See you in class, teme," Naruto said, walking into the building, followed by Sakura.

A little while later, they both sat down next to each other inside the classroom.

"Why didn't you defend yourself?" the pinkette asked. "You could have beaten Sasuke easily!"

"And what would that have proven?" Naruto replied. "Of course I could beat his ass in a fight. Everyone knows that, even if he's too deluded to admit it. If I'm gonna beat him, it's gonna be in a place where not even he can deny it." Sakura raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't answer, as Iruka walked in with team placements.

The scarred chunin looked up at the class and smiled.

"Congratulations, everyone, on passing. You have proven yourselves worthy candidates for the position of genin, and I'm proud to have taught you. Now for team placements. Team 1 will be..."

...Team 7 will be Sasuke Uchiha, Genji Uchiha and Kiba Inuzuka, under jonin sensei Kakashi Hatake. Team 8 will be Hinata Hyuuga, Ino Yamanaka, and Sakura Haruno, under jonin sensei Yuugao Uzuki. Team 9 is still in circulation. Team 10 will be Chouji Akimichi, Shino Aburame and Shikamaru Nara, under jonin sensei Asuma Sarutobi."

"Um... Sensei?" Sakura asked, raising a hand. "You didn't mention Naruto." Iruka grinned.

"Hn, the loser probably didn't even pass," Sasuke said, adding his two cents.

"Actually, Sasuke, the Hokage has given Naruto a position only rarely given to genin. He's now gained the rank of Tokubetsu genin, which means he's the most senior member of this class, and the only member of his unit besides his jonin sensei."

As most of the class blinked in surprise, Sasuke gaped like a fish. Iruka enjoyed his expression for a few seconds, then added insult to injury.

"That means that, in the absence of any ninja of superior rank, you all are to follow Naruto's orders. And Sasuke, don't even think about complaining."

Said Uchiha shut his mouth with a clap, as he had been about to do exactly that. He settled for glaring at Naruto, who put his feet up on the table and relaxed.

A little while later, the first jonin began to walk through the door, taking their genin teams to different places.

A man with a blue mask covering the lower half of his face, silver, gravity defying hair and his headband over one eye walked in.

"Team 7, follow me," he said.

"Hey, Kakashi," Naruto spoke up, giving him a slight wave, which said ninja returned. "I'm glad you took my advice seriously."

Kakashi gulped slightly, giving the blond a weak smile.

"Right! I'll keep taking the advice, Naruto," he said, seemingly nervous. "Team 7, meet me on the roof."

Everyone around the room raised an eyebrow and looked between Naruto and Kakashi, wondering what they were talking about. Sasuke, Genji and Kiba stood up, following the jonin out the door.

A man with brown hair and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth walked through next. This was the Hokage's son, Asuma Sarutobi.

"Team 10, follow me," he said, and Chouji, Shino and Shikamaru stood up. The jonin caught sight of Naruto and gave him a quick nod, which the genin returned.

Next to walk in was Yuugao Uzuki, former ANBU member who had chosen to return to the rank of jonin to, hopefully, take a team. She was quite beautiful, with long, straight, purple hair and dark eyes. She wore the standard jonin vest and black shinobi pants, while the handle of an ANBU sword showed itself over her right shoulder.

"Team 8, follow me," she said shortly, and the three kunoichi stood up.

"Hey, Neko-chan!" the blond ninja said, waving at her cheerfully, and she rolled her eyes.

"Not while I'm on duty, Naruto!" she replied, and walked out the door, followed by her three students. Sakura flashed Naruto a quick smile before ducking out of sight.

"Dude, how do you know so many elite ninja?" asked a random student who was still in the classroom. Naruto looked back at him and chuckled.

"Virtue, guys, virtue."

"Naruto Uzumaki?" came a female voice, and most of the occupants of the room looked up, only for their eyes to widen as they got a good look at the woman in front of them.

Kurenai Yuuhi was recently promoted to jonin, and so was the newest and least experienced of the elite ninja there today. But that did nothing to detract from her looks.

She was wearing a outfit that seemed to consist mostly of bandages, but generous amounts of skin could be seen, namely two long, shapely legs. Her bust was at least C-cup, bordering D, and her rear showed almost tauntingly through the bandages that covered it. Wild black hair came to a little below her shoulders, framing a pale and beautiful face. Her eyes were red and had a ripple-like pattern, and she stared around the classroom, before her gaze fell on Naruto. He seemed to be the only male in the room that wasn't shooting lustful looks her way.

"Meet me on the roof," she said, and vanished in a swirl of leaves.

Naruto grinned and stood up, opening up the window and climbing out, deciding to take the quick way up. Namely, climbing.

He leaped up with skill born of years of practice, and easily scaled the side of the building.

As he clambered up the final stretch, a shadow came over him, and he looked up to see Kakashi, eye smiling down at him.

"Hey," he said, his earlier nervousness forgotten, and held out a hand, which Naruto took, and Kakashi pulled him up onto the roof.

"How've you been?" Naruto asked.

"I've been good, what about you?"

"Okay, I guess."

They were interrupted as Kurenai appeared behind them in a swirl of leaves. She took a look at Naruto and Kakashi, surprised.

"I didn't expect you to get here so early, Kakashi," she said. The cyclops chuckled ruefully and scratched the back of his head.

"Yeah, well, Naruto gave me some... advice... and I decided to stick to it," he said, before shuddering slightly. Kurenai raised an eyebrow at him, then looked at Naruto, wondering what he'd done.

"I'll tell you after," he said, catching her questioning look.

They were interrupted again as Team 7 burst onto the roof through the doorway.

Naruto sighed in their general direction, and rubbed his temples.

"Great," he said. "I have to deal with these idiots again."

"Naruto, respect your comrades," Kurenai admonished, and he raised an eyebrow at her.

"Respect is earned, and so far, none of these guys have done anything to earn it."

"Hey, dobe, what are you doing here?" Sasuke asked, and Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Case in point," he grumbled. He turned to look at the Uchiha. "I'm currently meeting my jonin sensei."

"Who?" Kiba asked. "There's only one person on this roof who could be your sensei, and he's ours."

Kakashi and Kurenai's eyes widened at the statement, while Naruto's mouth fell open in shock.

"Did you actually say what I think you just said?" he asked, stunned that anyone could be so sexist.

"It's a fair question."

"Where did you learn to talk? I'm pretty sure that's not the definition of fair!"

"What?" Kiba asked. "Women are only good for birthing pups. They have no place in a man's world."

"Kiba!" Kakashi said sharply. "That's enough. Go sit down, all of you." He turned to Kurenai, who was gritting her teeth in anger.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'll try to straighten him out."

"N-no, that's okay," she replied, cursing herself for stuttering. "Naruto, come with me."

She took a look at Naruto, who was glaring at Kiba. His eyes, normally calm and cheerful, looked like two chips of ice. Kakashi also noticed this, and put a hand on the blond's shoulder.

"Naruto, calm down!" he said urgently, and the genin blinked in surprise and looked up at Kakashi.

"Huh?" he asked, and the jonin sighed.

"Seriously, you can't get angry here, you know how dangerous that is."

"Yeah, yeah," he sighed. "It's just, I hate sexist people."

"Join the club," Kakashi said, and nudged him in Kurenai's direction. "Go on."

"Right. Oh, by the way," he said, a grin forming on his face. "For them exclusively, you can ignore my advice."

Kakashi nearly gibbered with excitement and hurried over to his team.

"What was that?" Kurenai asked the tall boy, and he looked over at her.

"Well, a while ago, I got fed up with Kakashi always being late, so I gave him some... advice."

"What kind of advice?"

"I threatened him. If he didn't stop being late for everything, then I would burn his reason for living." She recoiled slightly.

"Seems a little harsh, don't you think?"

"Not really. Especially since his reason for living is so pathetic. Honestly, since he told me, I can't even believe it myself," he said, sitting down next to a water tower and sighing. She remained standing, crossing her arms and leaning against the side of the structure.

"What was his reason for living?" Naruto looked her straight in the eye, the epitome of seriousness.

"His porn."

Kurenai blinked for a few seconds, then her eyes hardened.

"Is that so?" she said calmly, uncrossing her arms. She turned around and started walking towards Kakashi, who had his back turned.

"Oh, crap," Naruto said, standing up hurriedly and rushing after her. "Sensei, wait! Don't kill him!"

A little while later, after Naruto had successfully talked Kurenai down, they stood again next to the water tower.

"So, I think it's time for introductions," the black-haired beauty said. He gave her a blank look, and she sighed.

"Okay, I'll be more specific. Name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams. For example, my name is Kurenai Yuuhi. I like Shōchū, vodka, takowasa and my friend Anko Mitarashi. I dislike perverts, those who look down on women," she said with a pointed glare at Kakashi and Kiba, respectively. "And cake."

"You don't like cake?" the blond asked, surprised.

"I detest the stuff," she said. "But anyway, my hobbies are training, gardening, drinking, and hanging out with Anko. My dream... I'll keep that to myself."

"Sure," Naruto said. "Well, I guess I'll introduce myself. My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like ramen, Cole, Anko, blacksmithing, glassblowing, drawing, making sculptures, reading, running, and cable tag."

"What's cable tag?" Kurenai asked. Naruto grinned happily.

"Oh, it's just a little game that Cole and I play. I think we're the only ones who can do it, but it's still fun."

Kurenai nodded, then paused.

"Cole? You mean Cole Macgrath?"

"Yep."

"What's cable tag?"

"Oh, Cole and I slide around on the wires around town, trying to catch each other. It's really fun, even with just two people."

"Really?" Kurenai asked, interested. "What do you do?"

"Oh, we climb buildings, run through crowds, slide on electric wires. When one person is tagged, the other has to give them ten seconds to run away, then chases after them. Use of electric powers is allowed, but only low-level stuff."

"Sounds interesting. Do you think it would work with someone else?" she asked, and he turned his head to the side inquisitively.

"Maybe, but they would probably be at a disadvantage, 'cause Cole and I are the two masters of running in this town. Plus the fact that our powers are pretty unique."

"Mm, yeah," she said quietly. He looked over at her.

"You heard about what I did in the council meeting, didn't you?"

She blinked, not expecting that question, and when she looked back at him, he just seemed... tired.

"Yeah, I did."

"And? What do you think?" he asked, giving a dry chuckle. "Am I a monster? A demon? Am I letting the Kyuubi take over?"

Her eyes widened at how... defeated he sounded. Like he was expecting her to revile him.

"Of course not," she said. "I also heard about what happened to you, and frankly, I think you were completely justified with what you did."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Really?" he asked. Kurenai nodded, and he smiled at her. The smile proved infectious, as she returned it.

"Anyway," she said, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Meet me at training ground 13 tomorrow at 8:00."

"Roger that," Naruto replied. She gave him a nod, then vanished in a swirl of leaves. He was left staring at the spot where she'd been, and smiled.

"This is gonna be fun."

* * *

Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Next time: Test and a surprise.


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